Who were your heroes as a child?

Gulya Korolyova
I read her biography several times over the years. Children’s propagandistic literature was truly inspiring in the USSR. :thumbsup:

Jesus Christ, as I was a child. Later Robert Fisk, now Noam Chomsky and Hugo Chavez. Tomorrow? Probably the NJ Devils!

Without hesitation . . . . Andy Devine. But I’m old.

TV/entertainment: The dude with black hair from CHIPS, Vincent from Airwolf, the Corey from Goonies, the boy Gelfling-or-whatever-it’s-called from The Dark Crystal, Madonna, and Bono

Real life: can not think of a single one!

Books: Die Uile, from a South African Afrikaans children’s book series. There was one guy in particular, but I have forgotten who it was.

Trompie en die Boksombende.

What I find interesting is where our heroes are to come from today. In a world of conflict you would think heroes would abound. They ought to be swinging in from the rafters, jumping out of telephone boxes and spinning on to the scenes of our everyday mundane existences from the bookcases in our living rooms, but they’re not.

I think that beggars the question, “Why not?”

We’ve got conflict up the kazoo, but such a lack of clarity of vision on what that conflict represents means our heroes can’t find grip on the moss that grows on our dampened ideals.

We’ve been sold wars that don’t require anything of you in way of sacrifice except minor inconvenience at airports and grossed out TV. Our job is to not let the war bother us, we only need go about your everyday lives, and stay the course, fill up the car and take out a hefty bank loan to contribute.

Yes, there are young lads and women out there showing true grit, but they’re too much of an unreliable bunch to be the heroes of these conflicts. They are the cannon fodder for our misplaced motives, our scapegoats.

Just give me one Winston Churchill on the run from the Boars and these wars will be won.

You’ve got to be kidding me!! :noway:
Never thought I would ever see someone call Trompie en die boksombende their heroes…

Kaalvoet en al! Ek is plein platgeselaan… (Eng trans: Bare foot and all! I’m Flabbergasted…)

Kermit the frog for his gentle, flawed, convicing humanism.


When I was a kid I thought this guy was Chinese and kick ass hero.

Then I saw this guy

Boy was I embarrassed. :blush:

[quote=“ac_dropout”]
When I was a kid I thought this guy was Chinese and kick ass hero.

Then I saw this guy

Boy was I embarrassed. :blush:[/quote]

You thought Donald Rumsfeld was Chinese?

Michael Jordan. “It has to be the shoes”.
Charles Barkley: “I’m not a role model”.
Mats Sundin, in a weak moment I enjoyed hockey (and I had to put a Swedish dude on my list).
Ian Wright, 1-0 to the Arsenal.
Mr T: “I pity the fool”.
Axl Rose.
Run DMC.

:canada: Steve Podborski :canada:

0-9 My grandfather
9-11 None (prepubescent vacuum)
12-19 Morrissey
14-24 Lou Reed
14-die H.R.
14-32 Mark E Smith
17-22 Courtney Love
15-32 Patti Smith
32- New obssessions pending, no doubt.

All musicians; real people aren’t real.

Except my grandfather who wasn’t a musician, he was a ship engineer who spoke to me in French. It was like our secret code because no-one else understood. And H.R., my first love (I kissed him with my eyes shut).

Charles Darwin
Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett (He was a British explorer who disappeared under unknown circumstances in 1925 during an expedition to find what he believed to be an ancient lost city in the uncharted jungles of Brazil.)
Gerald Durrell From Wiki: (January 7, 1925 – January 30, 1995) was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author, and television presenter. He founded what is now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo (now renamed Durrell Wildlife) on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1958, but is perhaps best known for writing a number of books based on his life as an animal collector and enthusiast. He was the brother of the novelist Lawrence Durrell.
Richard Hadlee A Kiwi fast bowler.

[quote=“almas john”]Charles Darwin
Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett (He was a British explorer who disappeared under unknown circumstances in 1925 during an expedition to find what he believed to be an ancient lost city in the uncharted jungles of Brazil.)
Gerald Durrell From Wiki: (January 7, 1925 – January 30, 1995) was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author, and television presenter. He founded what is now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo (now renamed Durrell Wildlife) on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1958, but is perhaps best known for writing a number of books based on his life as an animal collector and enthusiast. He was the brother of the novelist Lawrence Durrell.
Richard Hadlee A Kiwi fast bowler.[/quote]

Thank god. I knew there was someone out there who was turned on by more than cartoon characters and their ilk. :wink:

Like you, AJ, I too had a thing for Fawcett, too, but not Colonel Percival.

In the late 1970’s, it seemed that every boy in America (except me) had the above poster up in his room and all women wanted a Farrah Fawcett hairstyle.

[quote=“ac_dropout”]
When I was a kid I thought this guy was Chinese and kick ass hero.[/quote]

Well, his uniform does have the character “zhong” on it!

[quote=“Chris”][quote=“ac_dropout”]
When I was a kid I thought this guy was Chinese and kick ass hero.[/quote]

Well, his uniform does have the character “zhong” on it![/quote]
My thoughts exactly. With the red uniform for luck/anti-CSB, it was a understandable mistake.

  1. Speed Racer 2. Marine Boy 3. Hay-ya-ta of UltraMan fame

sergei bubka

alain prost

Damn, you were precocious!

I don’t remember having heroes when I was a kid. Maybe Albert Einstein, Shel Silverstein, and Mr. Wizard.

Later Steve Burns and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

I was such a geek.

My real-life heroes include K.J. Folck, my 7th grade science teacher, who was such an influential role model to me being my first science teacher and a woman. Actually, I had female math teachers every year of learning except for in algebra and trigonometry when I had a very overweight male teacher who was also the “coach” for the academic quiz team and the chess club. I thought that he was cool too. He was one of the few teachers who didn’t treat me special (or in the case of my chemistry teacher, like shit) for being in and out of the hospital. Also my high school French teacher influenced each other. She was the first teacher who cried in front of me and the first I remember ever convincingly being proud of me. She also was the most influential in getting a much-needed scholarship to travel to France and give me my first experience of life overseas.