Yes exactly what I'm talking about...whatever happened to sandlot games that didn't cost anything? I left the city to live in the country because it would be cheaper to raise children here. Even so, it's still money because you have to compensate for the things that a smaller rural community doesn't have.
Arrgh--I could rant on that forever! The amount of effort required to have some semblence of a 50's lifestyle is staggering. And I'm fortuate enough to have the money not to work and to pay little league fees.
That's a big problem IMO. If a kid plays sports it's in a league run by adults (although calling them grownups is a strech at times). If they play it's usually in a place built by adults. It seems that much of the imaginative life of kids is being cut out of kids lives by adults that are obsessed by doing "everything" for their kids.
Me, Mom turned me loose in the woods with a BB gun and expected me back for dinner if I wanted to eat.