Yes, those were the days. I remember my first paor of ice skates at age 7. I was thrilled, I spent many after school hours on the frozen pond from the time I walked to the pond until it was dark and I knew I had to get home the quickest way was along the RR tracks. From this falling down and getting bloody to playing on the high school team. The concern that my parents had was don’t be late for supper as you will have to eat it cold.
Summers were another grand adventure - camp out in the woods with our sleeping bags made from old blankets with safety pins holding them to-gether, no adults allowed. Built a log cabin with the gang, jeesh, we had axes and saws we were twelve, eleven, we didn’t cut our fingers off or get trapped by a falling tree.
Leaping from the roof of a building to a light pole guy wire with cardboard folded in our hands so we could slide down without burning our hands. Was a good time to be a child. My kids had almost the same as they were born in the covered period, I didn’t worry that they went to the pind and caught crawdads, or came home covered with mud from falling off the raft they made.
I feel for my grandkids they will not know the fabulous feeling of freedom that we had as children.
We've tried to provide our children with freedom. We let them get dirty, sent them to 7 weeks of old-fashioned boys' camp in New Hampshire, sent them out to play in the stream and woods in the back yard, and provided them with Scout camping trips. They've had more independence than most of their school friends, and yet they think we're over-protective. We each need to do what we can to help youngsters develop independence and to give them some space to play. It's harder than it was in our time. Their pals are all in structured programs, academic "enrichment camps", and otherwise protected from "wasting their time" or getting hurt. Today our guys helped my husband clear the driveway and now are out playing in the fresh 15 inches of snow. They're throwing snow into the stream, attempting to build a land bridge to another continent (along with throwing it at each other, of course). Good old fashioned fun, even at 14 and 16!