When I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, we would play until the street lights came on. Neighbors had pools for the summer, and there were plenty of wooded areas around us during the winter. More subdivisions popped up around us, and we would go climbing through the structures, conquering large mounds of dirt and “surfing” down them on plywood sheets.
After about 1988 or so, something happened. The Atari gave way to the Nintendo. If you were popular, you had one. Then Sega Genesis. We no longer had to walk the mile to get to the arcade. We could play at home and didn’t have to plink in our allowance to play. By the mid-90s, we had a computer in the house with Internet access to AOL. There was Instant Messaging and email and chat rooms. I could talk to kids around the country. Some of them I would call (much to the chagrin of my mom’s pocketbook when the phone bill came in), others I would write.
Next thing I know, here we are. With all of the digital gadgets, who needs outside anymore, right? I spent the weekend under the hood of my brother’s truck, sweating my butt off, and I noticed kids outside. They’re riding bikes and scooters, putzing around the neighborhood. I hear kids splashing in pools. They’re out there, but undoubtedly there are phones in the pockets of those kids with mom eager to dial them if they want them home.
We’re prisoners in our own homes anymore. Violent crime, sex offenders, THE GOVERNMENT... we do our best to avoid them by staying home. We make our homes our castles, monuments to our materialism and internally-facing lives. Communities aren’t what they used to be. Sure you get the occasional block party, but they’re usually booze-fueled bitch sessions about neighbor A’s crappy grass or neighbor B’s broken down pickup in the driveway.
What are we doing to ourselves as a nation, guys?
I think you’re on to something. In the 70s and early 80s kids still ran around our neighborhood playing outside until late on summer nights. I think that really started to change with the coming of cable TV and video games. It doesn’t help that the woods and fields we used for play decades ago are now endless rows of homes either.
What are we doing as a nation? Unbecoming a nation. The single most basic thing I sense going on is a complete loss of any hope for a better future. People feel trapped in an alien environment over which they have little control. All they can do is go through the daily routine. In the back of their minds, they’re waiting for the next shoe to drop. Everyone’s afraid of everyone else and especially afraid of the “other”, whether the “other” be a person of a different race, religion or national origin. And, considering the Leftists jack up of certain racial and religious groups, its smart to be wary. White kids in particular have a target on their backs, “This is for Trayvon”. The nation is dividing up along tribal lines and will soon divide up along regional lines. North Colorado seeking to secede from South Colorado is a perfect example. The ultimate break-up of this thing will be contentious and possibly bloody.
I take my kids to the playground (they're not old enough to walk there alone, yet). Contrary to this article, I see plenty of kids running around, going full tilt.
It's the *adults* that I see, sitting on benches, twiddling with those stupid Iphones, checking their email or facebook status for the 20th time that hour. I'm right in the middle of everything, pushing swings, flying kites, refereeing games of tag, whatever. It's fun.
As an aside, I never cease to be amazed, and saddened, at the number of kids - who aren't mine - who ask to play with me. "Will you push me?", "How does this kite work?", "Hey mister, Watch This!!", etc etc etc. They just want some attention, is all. Their parent is sitting right there, in plain sight, and can't be bothered to get off their (usually large) butt, put down the smart phone for five minutes, and give their spawn that five minutes of attention....
A nearby town is closing their pool because no one goes to it anymore. It’s a small town with very little to do as it is and now there will be even less. If Moo wants to blame something for kids being fat and unhealthy, she needs to blame the parents for allowing their kids to become couch potatoes with their video games and cell phones.
I was born five days before D-Day, on a tiny farm in SC. From the time I was able to carry in one stick of firewood at a time I had chores to do. Right now I am waiting for “Pedro” the tree service operator who lives within shouting distance to come by and give me a price to remove a big RED Oak that is at least four feet thick. It is leaning and I don’t want to take a chance on it falling and doing a lot of damage. I look at that tree and remember when I and my older brother cut one about the same size with a two man crosscut saw. The saw was five and one half feet long and when you hit the center of the log there was only room for a very short stroke. I could not have been more than eleven and he was no more than fourteen. We felled the tree, cut it up in firewood lengths and hauled it back to the house with a groundsled pulled by a mule. We were working unsupervised, the only other person there most of the time was my mother who was in the house two hundred yards from the tree. My father was miles away at work. Of course we didn’t do it in one day. It took many Saturdays and evenings after school to cut up all that and haul it home. That is the kind of work I was involved in from the time my age was two digits and even before. When I allowed my grandson to use my machete at age ten his father freaked out. Things certainly are different now.