I grew up in southwestern Michigan. It was a grand time to be a kid - lots of youngsters in the neighborhood and always someone to join a game of cops & robbers or cowboys & Indians. Baseball bats turned into machine guns, and I was always envious of the boys who could make such persuasive machine gun noises. We played hide and seek on summer nights until well after the street lights came on. Parents knew we were nearby, and it was OK.
I don't think kids today would know how to play Simon Says, Mother May I, or Red Rover. Cowboys & Indians would just leave them scratching their heads. We loved to jump rope with silly rhymes like the one about the lady with the alligator purse.
Our neighbor had one of those Kool-Aid pitchers with the smile on it, and always had ice cold Kool-Aid for us on hot summer days. She also gave us graham cracker sandwiches filled with leftover chocolate icing whenever she baked a cake for dessert - yum. Our bikes were basic transportation, and we loved to ride over to a local ice cream shop for a treat.
What a great time!
Hey I was in Buchanan from 1965 to 1972