What happened to unstructured summers?

Mpls (red)Star Tribune ^ | 6/21/02 | ROBERT KLOSE

[Valin]

I grew up in the same town as the writer and you, except it was Duluth Mn. and it was in the 50s. Last year I was up in Duluth and drove by the house I grew up in and Lo and behold there were kids playing baseball right out in the street the same spot we played mwany decades ago. As I drove by I got the same looks we used to give grow-ups when I was a kid.

[nothingnew]

Great reply SA76...I grew up pretty much in the film "Stand By Me"...50's stuff, always looking for an adventure during the summer, (and every other time during the year)...bass fishing, snappin' turtle catching, BB guns, neighborhood baseball...this whole post brought tears to my eyes. Not just for the memories, but for what this country has become.

FReegards,

FMCDH

[cubreporter]

Ah, the Jersey shore in the summertime. Beach buckets, seashells, sand, salt water taffy, hot dogs on the boardwalk, fudgecicles on the beach, ice cream waffle sandwiches on the boardwalk, the BIG Merry Go Round...all good memories. Unfortunately, kids can't be kids today. Too much out there to hurt them anymore. Sad but true. So, we keep our memories and hope they have good ones as well. Happy Summer everyone.

[DeaconBenjamin]

My daughter (7) is having a summer as you describe. Less neighbors, alas.

[Carolina]

...re-enacting Harry Potter scenes with our old brooms...

My kids have been acting out scenes from Monty Python's Holy Grail.

They discovered that banging measuring cups together makes a similar enough sound to knocking coconuts.

In between, they're playing Clue and Monopoly.

And making popsicles, laying on the family-size hammock swatting away flies and mosquitos looking at shapes in the clouds.

Then when their daddy gets home from work, off they go sailing.

[Valin]

Sounds like a nice life they have. Ok I'm jealous! :-)

[Carolina]

Well, it helps living on the Carolina coast. :-)

[joyce11111]

Vanlin..thanks for the reminders of our more fortunate childhoods....I can remember just laying on the lawn looking up at the clouds, and, my imagination ran rampant and free.

[watchin]

Wow, that sure brings it all back. I grew up on the Jersey shore - and I remember summers pretty much as described.

No schedules, fireflies (lightening bugs), exploring in the woods, swimming in the creek, kickball in the street, tree houses, catching turtles, toads, and salamanders, my cousin's ice cream truck (free stuff), cokes and candy at the general store ...

The biggest difference, I think, is not in the scheduling of our kids summers, but in the safety. I don't recall my parents ever having to worry about perverted serial killers on the prowl for small children. We were free to roam all over town, all day long.

Every adult was an authority figure, a pair of watchful eyes, and a "Mr." or "Mrs." I would never have referred to an adult by first name.

As I read what I've written, I sound like a real old-timer. I'm forty. What happened to our world?

[watchin]

You must have been a real kick to hang around with.

[pt17]

Alas that was then, this is now

I often think the children of today are greatly underprivileged in that they have too much of everything except the freedom to be children. Too many don't have the unstructured freedom that fosters trial-and-error social learning and the creative expression and invention that comes from having less. This is sad because less is really more.

How fortunate we were to have to scrounge parts to motorize Radio Flyer wagons instead of being given battery-driven sports cars. How fortunate we were to have parentless sandlot baseball games instead of Little League. How fortunate we had radio, which gave your mind room to imagine, instead of television bombarding your senses. We were the ones who were rich.

Thanks for the post, Valin.

[Valin]

Which one has the better chance at getting into the Ivy League?

That's assuming getting into an ivy league school is really such a good thing. I also under which child ends up as a well rounded adult. Which should be the goal every parent strives for.

[kcat]

Hi guys. Some of the things we used to do were play cops and robbers on our bikes, complete with going to jail, spend days "rehearsing" for plays that we would put on for the neighborhood, have air guitar bands, make "recipies" with all the mud and berries and whatever we found in the yard, make trails in the woods for bike riding. The parents in the neighboorhood would all meet outside at cocktail hour and sit in someones front yard in lawn chairs. That was the best for us kids - being outside and all the grownups being there too.

Thanks for the memories.

[Valin]

That was the best for us kids - being outside and all the grownups being there too.

It was best for us when there were no grownups around like climbing up 100foot+ cliffs with no ropes or any "safety devices", riding toboggan (standing up of course) through woods and across roads to name but a few. Mom would have had a fit IF she knew.