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I Was a Teenage Reprobate

Bad decisions and staying one step ahead of the law in the 1980s

Mike Scarpiello
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
8 min readSep 20, 2024

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One of the more serendipitous things I enjoy about life is when someone says something seemingly innocuous at first, but that ends up bringing back a flood of memories from the distant past. This happened to me the other day at, of all places, the golf course.

It seems like everyone I know, after buying a new home, becomes attached at the hip to either Home Depot or Lowe’s. My friend purchased a new home last year and was going on and on about how every weekend he makes a trip to Home Depot. This triggered a memory from my youth about my experience with Home Depot when I was 18. It’s something I haven’t thought about in a very long time.

Is honesty the best policy?

You will likely not believe this story, but I promise you it’s true. During the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college in 1984, I applied for a job at Home Depot, or some similar store in Parma, OH with a very similar name and selection of products. Parma is a heavily Polish suburb of Cleveland.

I filled out the application and gave it to the clerk. The very next morning I got a call from the manager asking me to come in for an interview that afternoon. I can’t even begin to think what I wore…

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Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

Published in Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

Mike Scarpiello
Mike Scarpiello

Written by Mike Scarpiello

UX Designer, writer, musician, poet, political satirist, musician, bull runner, craft beer enthusiast, and UX Design mentor at https://shorturl.at/jRV2i

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