Idiotic Brainwasher

When I was five, we moved to Ohio. I became best friends with Derek Davidson, the kid a couple houses down. For about 2 years we played together all the time. He was a very imaginative kid, later going on to be a child actor in Baltimore, I think. Then he and his family moved away and, even though we wrote letters back and forth for a while, we lost touch. Anyway, we came up with this long curse/insult name, that we used to chant to each other. Somehow, and I don't know how, I still remember it perfectly, 37 years later...

You idiotic brainwasher,
disconnected, fluoridected*,
overgrown dum-dum,
nicompoop, poopydoop,
dingbat magician, ding-a-ling.

I love some of these phrases. "Dingbat magician"? "Idiotic brainwasher"? Where did those come from? I loved being a kid, when your imagination was almost a palpable thing. I used to play with action figures all the time (or as my Dad called them, "dolls") and I could spend hours and hours living in this other world.

One of the saddest things I remember is when I started growing too old for them. I just lost interest and could no longer summon up the imaginary world. I'd try to keep playing with them, but the spark was gone. Evey few months I'd pull them out of the closet and try to make a go of it, but it just wouldn't work. Growing up sucks. That's why I decided to stop.

*Having something to do with Fluoride, I guess.