Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

First Lady Michelle Obama: ‘So Many Communities Are Becoming Play Deserts’
CNS News ^ | 5/19/16 | Melanie Hunter

Posted on 05/19/2016 2:33:14 PM PDT by Nachum

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-148 next last
To: sportutegrl

No, it’s like the “food desert”, neighborhoods lacking whatever basic amenity they’re whining about today, without of course ever bothering to look at the reasons why nobody owns a grocery store there or has built a playground.


61 posted on 05/19/2016 3:47:24 PM PDT by discostu (Joan Crawford has risen from the grave)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Hockey field? That must be a Minnesota thing? We played on ponds. Or rinks.


62 posted on 05/19/2016 3:48:03 PM PDT by Vermont Lt (Ask Bernie supporters two questions: Who is rich. Who decides. In the past, that meant who dies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
When I was a kid we played baseball and football on an empty lot. The men of the neighborhood would often come out and play ball with us. They also helped us build humongous snowmen. The dads were great fun. If dads in bad neighborhoods would play with the kids like our neighborhood dads did then the bad kids, drug pushers and gang wouldn't want to come around.

When I was a kid we put on plays and circuses for our parents. We played Tarzan and Jane and cowboys and Indians. We climbed tall trees fearlessly. We explored the country side and went fishing in the river with homemade poles, cooking the fish over tin can fires. We made forts out of anything they could be made out of, some of them pretty extensive. We played king of the mountain on a local dirt hill. We played teacher and taught the little kids how to read, write, know the states on a map etc. We played in tree houses and a children's little play house. We played house, dressing up as pilgrims going west. We played with dolls and troll dolls. We created haunted houses (wouldn't want my kid to do that today), and like to make homemade mysterious things and charged a nickle for other kids to see them and guess what they were. We roller skated, ice skated, rode bikes and scooters, played volleyball, badminton, croquet and other lawn games. We played so many games known and made up that we were hard to get back into our homes after dark. In the dark we played special night games. We had such great fun and tremendous imaginations.

63 posted on 05/19/2016 3:50:43 PM PDT by Bellflower (It's not that there isn't any evidence of God, it's that everything is evidence of God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mkjessup

LOL!


64 posted on 05/19/2016 3:52:00 PM PDT by doorgunner69
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: MNDude
I grew in in Chula Vista, CA (near San Diego). There is a city pool. I've been in it about 10 times as part of an elementary school program (2nd and 4th grade). Never visited the place outside of that school activity. Hockey fields? None. I played no sports and didn't give a rat's ass about sports or parks. My scout troop met in the elementary school cafeteria a couple time each month. Open to any group with a prior reservation.

In my current digs (Pocatello), there is an indoor pool (year round) and outdoor pool (May to September). Lots of soccer fields. Rodeo for the high school kids. Football. A full range. It's hardly a "wealthy" area with median income of $29k. Very few blacks. Gangs are present on the nearby reservation, but not in town. Drug activity tends to visit from Utah looking for customers.

65 posted on 05/19/2016 3:52:10 PM PDT by Myrddin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Our small town had 1 park. It was A couple of miles away from our house so we played all up and down the streets. The whole neighborhood was our playground.


66 posted on 05/19/2016 3:54:18 PM PDT by sheana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

I was raised up on a long dirt road...No nothing for miles...I survived it....at least i was close to a bay...spent time swimming and fishing...Didn’t know anything about parks and activities... No government around. and didn’t know any difference...Us kids met up on bicycles and entertained ourselves....I can’t even relate to city folks that were raised with even a store close by....It’s odd that i turned out ok and the government played no hand in it at all.....I find city people whiny to tell the truth.


67 posted on 05/19/2016 3:56:13 PM PDT by chasio649
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: grania

Here all the neighborhood schools are completely fenced and the gates are locked at all times, except in the morning when the kids are arriving and in the afternoon when they’re leaving. Locked tight. Nplaygrounds no longer available to the neighborhood kids. Bet you can guess why.


68 posted on 05/19/2016 3:57:36 PM PDT by sheana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Wow, ice skating in the street! Lucky!

My son when little so wanted to skate outside in our yard, showed me from a catalog a plastic “pond” you could buy for ice skating. Fill it up with the hose, voila, the next morning you have your own rink!!! Had to tell him that we wouldn’t get much ice even if it dropped down into the 50s at night...


69 posted on 05/19/2016 3:57:49 PM PDT by Yaelle (Tinkerbelle glittering up the runway for Trump Force One!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

The wealthiest neighborhood I have lived in, the kids played in a battered asphalt alley! Billionaire kids and poor ones, and we had fun! Inventing games, riding bikes, trikes, scooters. Kids can play wherever they are -— somehow without federal funding!


70 posted on 05/19/2016 4:00:22 PM PDT by Yaelle (Tinkerbelle glittering up the runway for Trump Force One!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vermont Lt
I see empty ball fields all over town

Because parents don't let their precious little snowflakes out the front door and today's kids have their nosed in the phones 24/7. A couple summers ago, our nephews came for a week. Everything we asked if they wanted to, their answer was no. Go geocaching? No because there are weeds outside. Go bike riding? Don't know how and don't want to learn. Radio controlled cars? No, that's outside. Play with the new litter of kittens. No, because the garage where their box was opens to the big scary outside. No, can't walk 3 minutes down to grandma's house because they might get fresh air. Archery, flint knapping, ball games, hiking, fishing, riding in the boat, swimming in the river or the lake or the nice clean clear swimming pool, roasting marshmallows, help with the bbq, fireworks, target practice, golf, mini golf, going to the cave, movies, out to eat, camping, going to the park, feed the deer, board games, card games, kinex building construction toys, etc. No, no, and no. We got fed up with them and packed them off their aunt after 3 days.

71 posted on 05/19/2016 4:01:27 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

OH NO!!!!!

It’s the dreaded White Privlege Playground Gap!

Another make believe crisis Moochie pulled out her rather ample derrière.

Put this on the list of bogus reasons to justify why far too many blacks carry on like uncivilized animals.

“Whitey has more playgrounds than us blacks so lets go kill us some innocent people, loot a few liquor stores and get us some free big screen TV’s.”


72 posted on 05/19/2016 4:04:17 PM PDT by Iron Munro (If liberals were in charge of the oceans, in 5 years they would be vast water-less deserts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tillacum

Looks like we lived in the same areas. I still have some of the marbles I used to play with and I am 67 years young.

I used to have large coffee cans full of marbles, but the ones I have left fill a large glass jar that sits on the kitchen windowsill.


73 posted on 05/19/2016 4:06:25 PM PDT by Gator113 (~~Vote Trump 2016~~ Just livin' life my way. Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright. 👍)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: MNDude
Did any of you have any fun playing as kids without aquatic centers and hockey fields?

I guess Moochie never saw a bunch of white kids playing stick ball on a busy street.


74 posted on 05/19/2016 4:07:32 PM PDT by Iron Munro (If liberals were in charge of the oceans, in 5 years they would be vast water-less deserts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Bingo!


75 posted on 05/19/2016 4:08:03 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Keep calm and Pray on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Yaelle

Kids can play wherever they are -— somehow without federal funding!


It’s a miracle!!! haha... Just don’t know how i made it without midnight basketball....even though there was no court around for miles....My dad did put us up a goal...Played b-ball on dirt ;)


76 posted on 05/19/2016 4:14:59 PM PDT by chasio649
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Yes, we did. A trip to our neighborhood playground, where there was no graffiti, I might add, was a big deal. We had a see-saw, monkey bars, a swing set with 3 swings, and a sliding board. And, for us, it was heaven.

Just recently, I was reminiscing about how my mother would give us sheets of wax paper to be used to shine the sliding board. We were convinced that it let us go faster down the slide.


77 posted on 05/19/2016 4:15:20 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Keep calm and Pray on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
If they attend school, don't they have to participate in Phys Ed where they'd be required to partake in all types of sports?

I graduated from high school in 1965. We had mandatory Gym class once or twice a week, in which we had to do gymnastics, softball, swimming, basketball, field hockey, track and field, etc., plus complete exercises at the beginning of each class. We had gym class in grammar school too, had to learn how to dance, including square dancing. And this was in Rochester, NY.

As a student, if you were interested, you could sign up for any sports programs which took place after school. Those kids Moochie is whining about, probably don't have the initiative to sign up because they'd have to stay after school in order to participate. It's not that they don't have the opportunities to participate, it's that they can't be bothered to sacrifice the time to participate in extracurricular sports activities.

78 posted on 05/19/2016 4:16:47 PM PDT by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bgill

today’s kids have their nosed in the phones 24/7


Folks older than me are addicted to those things....I am happy with my flip phone....I appreciate how wonderful it is to have a “Telephone” in my pocket.


79 posted on 05/19/2016 4:18:00 PM PDT by chasio649
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Food deserts, Play deserts....
I wish she would find a desert far far away.


80 posted on 05/19/2016 4:18:41 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-148 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson