How to Cremate a Parakeet
and other tales of an Adventurous Childhood

Published September 28, 2026

What is good parenting?

• Would you let your kids cremate a dead pet parakeet?
• Would you let them “sword” fight with hedge clippers?
• Would you send your kid to a summer camp where a counselor dumped him out of a rowboat in the middle of a lake and yelled, “Swim to shore”—knowing he couldn’t swim?
• Would you have no concerns about your kids hanging out with Larry the Popsicle Man?

You would if you didn’t know what was going on.

Welcome to the world of excellent parenting of the 1960s, characterized by the benign neglect of suburban stay-at-home moms and dads who left the house at 8 and returned for dinner at 6 after another day at the office.

Chris Byrne’s (“the toy guy”) story of that kind of childhood zigzags between hilarious antics and lurid discoveries, wayward pranks and high-flown schemes.

Readers feel, without being told, that when children’s curiosity isn’t punctured by needless parental caution, kids can cultivate rare insights on how to live well.