Lucas Trew was born too late, a 17 year old boy with a ‘60’s sen­si­bil­i­ty trapped in a ‘90’s South Texas lifestyle.  He longs for the days of protest march­es, real rock ‘n roll, and, why not, free love.  His lifestyle is about to change, but not quite as he might have wished.  His father, an ex-marine Viet­nam vet­er­an, has just sold his busi­ness and bought the fam­i­ly a ram­shackle man­sion in the coun­try.  The plan is for mom and dad, Lucas, and his three half-sis­ters to spend the sum­mer at the Texas coast while the man­sion is renovated.

But then Lucas gets caught smok­ing pot at school on the last day of his junior year.  School offi­cials threat­en to press charges and with­hold cred­it for the entire year.  How­ev­er, their anger pales in the light of his father’s.  Dean Trew real­izes how far he has let his rela­tion­ship with his son drift and deter­mines to make amends, albeit in boot camp style.  When mom and the sis­ters leave for the Coast, father and son stay behind to do the ren­o­va­tions them­selves.  Mil­i­tary mind­set con­fronts hip­pie consciousness.

Only behind the stern demeanor is a man des­per­ate to make real con­tact with the son he’s nev­er quite con­nect­ed with.  Dean holds him­self respon­si­ble for Lucas’s down­ward spi­ral, which began sev­er­al years ear­li­er.  Lucas had been one of the top junior ten­nis play­ers in the state, until mom and dad expressed their fears that his ten­nis coach and con­stant com­pan­ion might be gay.  In retal­i­a­tion, Lucas quit the sport.  And Dean was always too busy build­ing his busi­ness to have much time for Lucas.

For Lucas, a sum­mer with “dad” equates with a sea­son in hell.  Espe­cial­ly after Dean reveals the rules–summer long restric­tion; vis­it­ing hours; manda­to­ry phys­i­cal fit­ness; and end­less hours scrap­ing, sand­ing and paint­ing a house Lucas comes to hate as much as its own­er.  But even hell has its oases–visits from Dan­ny, his pot-smok­ing ami­go, and Eun, his Asian Amer­i­can on and off again girl­friend; occa­sion­al trips to the Coast; group drug ther­a­py ses­sions that go beyond weird­ness; and one wild night of free­dom.  Not to men­tion a shark attack.…

The Six­ties Kid is a father-son dra­ma about recov­er­ing rela­tion­ships, find­ing out who you are, and learn­ing to live with it.