Posted on 07/20/2019 8:16:01 PM PDT by SamAdams76
OK, so I wrote my post about the heat earlier today. Yes, it was a hot day but I went for a second walk around 7PM when the temperature dropped to a more comfortable 85 degrees.
One thing I noticed, as is the case pretty much any day, is that there are zero kids on the streets. Now I know a lot of kids live in my neighborhood because during the school year, as I take my morning walks, all those big yellow buses ply the streets. During the winter months especially, you see all those idling SUV's and minivans with the kids cocooned inside. As the yellow bus pulls up, the kids dash from the heated cars into the buses with their flip flops and pajama pants.
I kid you not. Pajama pants and flip flops are now apparently acceptable for school wear. Even in the dead of winter.
Kids don't play outside anymore. They don't even appear to have bicycles. Now when I was growing up in the 1970s, a bicycle was pretty much mandatory. Especially a Huffy bike with fat tires so that we could go "off-road" and get to our hideaways in the woods and marshes where we had our stashes of Playboy and MAD magazines.
For those who are familiar with the first season of the Netflix show "Stranger Things", that was my childhood. Riding with my friends on bikes and finding exciting things to do. One thing we didn't do was hang out at home because there was nothing to do there. No video games. No computers. No smartphones. We did have TVs but our parents didn't let us watch it during the day. If I showed up at my house in the middle of a summer day, my Mom would put a broom in my hand and put me to work. So naturally I did not go home until dinner time. My breakfast was a couple bowls of Raisin Bran and lunches were sandwiches and glasses of lemonade handed out the window by mothers who didn't want us in the house dirtying things up.
I feel bad for the kids of today because on the whole, they do not have any concept of what it is like to be truly free. To get out of the house in the morning with a bicycle and not return until dark. Every moment of their lives is micro-managed and supervised by helicopter parents who need to have control over every facet of their lives. In my opinion, this does not bode well for our society.
I have not yet seen Seasons 2 or 3 of Stranger Things so no spoilers, please. Based on Season 1, this could be a decent show.
Reading the book this weekend called "Justice On Trial" by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino. Pretty amazing book about the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. Was it only a year ago that this all occurred? Seems like it was 2 or even 3 years ago at this point.
Anyway, it was disgusting how the Left tried to smear Brett Kavanaugh, who is a fine man with a great family. Not only smear him but to utterly destroy his life with false accusations of sexual misconduct. These are truly evil people we are up against. But with President Trump, we have a man who will fight and thus we have Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
No doubt a President Jeb Bush would have tossed Kavanaugh off to the side and selected a "moderate" justice that would turn out to be another tool of the Left. We are so fortunate that 2016 was the year that Donald Trump decided to run for president. The alternative would have been pretty much the end of America.
Hear!, Hear!
Every kid in my ‘hood had a Schwinn banana seat bike. I told my parents I wanted one for Christmas and ended up getting a Sears knockoff called a Gremlin.
With peer pressure and all that I felt like I was driving a Yugo among Mustangs. Yeah, bad analogy but hindsight allows that.
My Mom said either play outside or do chores around the house. In the summer, I would literally, after breakfast, play outside from 9am and wouldn't come home until 8pm. I'd eat at my friends house.
We'd play in construction zones, on wet cement, parks, abandoned warehouses and cars.
So yes, Stranger Things is my childhood too. And yes, you gotta watch Season 2 and 3. It is a great show.
This entire summer the kids next door have been inside playing video games.
They never leave the house.
During the school year they come tearing up the stairs after classes, turn on the TV set and play video games until it’s bed time. I hear them every day. I hear them now every day.
It’s pretty sad.
I had an Atari which I bought with my own money when I was a kid. I was not allowed to play it all day, just an hour or so at a time.
TV? Sure, we could watch TV but only at night, only pre-approved programs and only 4 or 5 hours a week. That’s it.
And never tell my mother your bored - you’d be put to work right away.
Do teenagers even have Summer jobs any more?
I rode a bike much of the time until I was in my late thirties. There was a bike rack on the back of my car most of the time.
I’m in the suburbs of Chicago, and with the exception of ultra hot days like today (98 by our home’s thermometer), kids are everywhere. Day, night, doesn’t matter. Lots of backyard fire pits, bikes, and classic cars, plus noise to boot. It gives me hope.
I think my generation (born ‘85-90) was the last to have long Halloweens and stay out late at night. The kids around here don’t have a proper Halloween anymore thanks to “safety concerns”, and the trick-or-treating ends at 6pm. Period. Basically, two hours. Unless someone drives you to the really expensive areas or you hit churches and strip malls, that’s a small net of candy. I tell kids to come back at the end of the night for handfuls, and believe me they do. I also give breaks to high schoolers provided they don’t ride around in a car, because they missed out too, and for far longer than the wee ones.
It looks grim, I agree, but areas that are largely safe still have a lot of outdoor activity for children, and suburban parents put lots of kids in summer programs and sports. A few pools were put in neighbor’s homes nearby, and that’s gotten kids out for sure. I grew up with a pool and going to summer camps, and it doesn’t look like much has changed on that front.
Stingrays,,,yup.
I remember tying
Up a Transistor
Radio with lots of rubber
Bands to absorb the shock
When I was “getting air”
From some Righteous Jumps.
That's a "darn" good question.
I had summer jobs in college that paid for my room and board, tuition increases and fun money...
For me it was a J.C. Higgins bike-either Sears or Montgomery Ward.
Man this photo reminds me of my childhood in the mid to late 1970s early 1980s!
Good observation and what I have noticed in my neighborhood too that is full of families and kids.
This platform we are on the Internet certainly changed the world slowly over the last 20 years.
It was great being a kid back then.
If you ever get a chance, then watch “The Americans”. Which is Cold War show from KGB operatives in America in the 1970s and 1980s (Northern Virginia Area). They come across normal parents. The kids, who have no idea their parents are KGB spies, are playing sports and doing the typical American things at the time. Anyhow, it is a good watch.
Keep in mind these are KGB operatives. So anything goes. It is wild and at times sickens you.
The racist history of newspaper editorial boards.
This makes me giggle. I grew up and still live on a small island. In the summer we got out of bed, had breakfast, put on a bathing suit - flip flops - towel and headed for the beach. We were there all day, alone, just kids. Lunch was when the Ice Cream Man came around in his white truck, you didn’t need money if you had an “account” and you paid your bill when you got your allowance.
I can’t imagine growing up any other way, no adults, no sun screen, no drownings, and no one got skin cancer. How could that be?
One of my students, married with 3 or four kids, graduated in 4 years with no debt-he worked at Applebee’s 12 months a year.
His time management skills were excellent to say the least.
They still do have Summer jobs.
I had an Atari too, but could only play it when it was cold, raining or holidays.
If it was nice, my homework and chores were done, then I had to get outside usuall all day until super time. It was either go to a friends house, go to the pool, bicycle, explore, etc... Haha!
Why are you walking around town looking for little kids on the street?
I haven’t seen the show but I was a kid of the ‘60s too. Had a gold Schwinn stingray and rode it all day long. They must have been built tough because we did some crazy jumping with them and I don’t recall any serious breakage.
Do teenagers even have Summer jobs any more?
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Illegal aliens fill most of the jobs that teenagers would otherwise have in the summer... and also part time during the school year.
I can still remember the pain of going to hometown triple A baseball games and NOT winning the pony and NOT winning the Schwinn bicycle....
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