Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for June 07, 2011

I like that plan!

In my youth, it was ride my bike to either the empty lots and kids baseball (with no parents around thankfully), or the public swimming pool.

Oh yeah, and the screen door would bang on my way out.

Been there. Forgot to do that. ;)

Best part of being a kid in the summertime: What do I feel like doing right now? : )

We never had an adgenda. We didn’t go to pool either our mom was too worried we drown and we couldn’t swim. We rode our bikes a lot. Loved bumpy dirt roads.

Good idea for all year round.

We don’t need no…stinkin agenda!!!Walk barefoot in the creek, swing from the rope on the old oak tree, balance along the railroad track, imagine all kinds of things in the old rusted heap in the back acres, even play in the hay loft when we’re down at the farm. Back then the biggest TV was 21" and all of them came in B&W.

This probably isn’t the place for this topic, but everyones responses got me to thinking. We complain these days that kids are too sedentary with their television and video games. How much is that actually related to the fact that kids can no longer go out to play with mom’s response of “be home for lunch/dinner”. Now kids are barely allowed out of their yards for fear of what may happen to them. I think it’s sad, and wonder which is really the cause of kids being sedentary.

Having no one to play with (and little or nothing on tv!) I spent summers up in trees reading, or out in the “backyard” which was several acres in size and comprised farm fields, nieghbors’ woods, and the creek. (No one seemed to worry about my inability to swim.) My cousins lived in a city and missed this, but they had a huge park and a municipal pool. Now the park is inhabited by dangerous people and the pool is closed for lack of funds.

Yea, back in the day! It was fun then. Kids today are missing so much, and maybe part of that is our fault because we never taught them the “finer” things in life. You know what I’m trying to say? Now the world is so crazy. Kids grow up so fast and the innocence is gone early these days.Excuse me while I step down from my soap box.

I prefer to make things up as I go along in summer.