It’s been a while since I last posted. So to keep everything interesting, here’ s some more Wonder Years Quotes which I’ve compiled.
Episode: “Pilot”
“A suburban junior high school cafeteria is like a microcosm of the world. The goal is to protect yourself. And safety comes in groups. You have your cool kids. You have your smart kids. You have your greasers. And in those days of course you had your hippies. In effect in junior high school who you are, is defined less by who you are than by who’s the person sitting next to you. A sobering thought.”
“It was the first kiss for both of us. We never really talked about it afterwards. But I think about the events of that day again and again and somehow I think Winnie does too whenever some blowhard talks about the anonymity of the suburbs or the mindlessness of the TV generation. Because we know that inside of each one of those identical boxes with its Dodge parked out front and its white bread on the table and its TV set glowing blue in the falling dusk there were people with stories. There were families bound together in the pain and struggle of love. There were moments that made us cry with laughter. And there were moments like that one of sorrow and wonder.”
Episode: “Swingers”
“Brian Cooper was the first person I ever knew who wasn’t old who died. I guess we all have that moment when we realize that someone who is basically a kid can cease to exist. And we’re never the same after that.”
“Like women all over America, my mother confronted tragedy and death with cold ham and Jello salad.”
“Maybe we both realized that growing up doesn’t always have to be a straight line, but a series of advances and retreats. Maybe we just felt like swinging. But whatever it was Winnie and I made and unspoken pact that day to stay kids for a little while longer.”
Episode: “Our Miss White”
“It was a strange and passionate time. Some of our dreams dissolved into thin air. They almost seem comical now. But some of our dreams are lasting and real.”
Episode: “Whose Woods These Are”
Maybe every human soul deals with loss and grief in its own way. Some curse the darkness. Some play hide and seek. That night Paul and Winnie and I found something we almost lost. We found our spirit. The spirit of children. The bond of memory. And the next day they tore down Harper’s Woods.
Episode: “How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation”
“The Last Day of School: It was kind of a solemn moment. 8 months of relentless education were finally erupting in a blast of summer madness.”
Episode: “Square Dance”
“Some people pass through your life and you never think about them again. Some you think about and wonder what ever happened to them. Some you wonder if they ever wonder what happened to you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again. But you do.”
“In 7th grade, who you are is what other 7th graders say you are. The funny thing is it’s hard to remember the names of kids you spent so much time trying to impress.”
Episode: “Math Class”
“The transition from Summer to Fall is a tricky one. Like astronauts returning from space, we had to re-enter the atmosphere of school carefully, so that the sudden change in pressure wouldn’t kill us.”
Episode: “Moving”
“There was a time when the world was enormous…Spanning the vast, almost infinite boundaries of your neighborhood. The place where you grew up. Where you didn’t think twice about playing on someone else’s lawn. And the street was your territory .that occasionally got invaded by a passing car. It was where you didn’t get called home until after it was dark. And all the people, and all the houses that surrounded you were as familiar as the things in your own room. And you knew they would never change.”
“Thirteen is a crazy age. You’re too young to vote, and too old not to be in love. You live in a house someone else owns…But your dreams are already somewhere else.
You face the future armed with nothing but the money you’ve earned from mowing lawns, and a nine-dollar ring with a purple stone. And you hope against hope…that’ll be enough.”
Episode: “Journey”
“After all if growing up is war, then those friends who grew up with you deserve a special respect. The ones who stuck by you shoulder to shoulder in a time when nothing is certain when all life lay ahead and every road led home.”