The Buckets by Greg Cravens for July 19, 2011

Back when I was your age, I had to trudge 3 miles (we didn’t have kilometers back then ) through 4 feet of ice cream (uphill both ways) to get to the dirty snow (including yellow) truck. And you can bet mean old Mr Kidsnatcher didn’t wait if you was one second late. If you wanted your dirty snow you were waiting with your nicle and you called him Sir.

When I was around two my unsupervised roaming area was the front and back yard (that according to my parents). By Fifth grade I was out to 1.5 miles. This included an old quarry. Guys could just pull off the Eastshore Hwy , set up a target and plink away. A great place to collect Lead, if you kept your head down.

When I was a kid, I spen all my days in the local parks – sometimes I didn’t even bother coming home for lunch. Few parents would allow that now.

It’s not just that parents won’t allow it, but kids today are so used to central heating and AC everywhere that a lot of them won’t go outside unless they have to if the temperature is outside of a 68-72 degree range!

oh Greg, how you hit the nail on the head! Parents these days are such nannys! LET YOU KID LIVE. I remember when I was a kid, I lived in a town-house complex. We were across the dead-end street from the school, and local pool (and ALWAYS had a pass), and just around the corner from the cemetary (oh, how we loved to dare one another to go in!), and just up the road from the Corner Store (then called Becker’s).Mom would have breakfast for us at 7:30am on Summer days, and we weren’t to return till 12pm for lunch, then not again till 5:30pm for supper, then we were to get out of her hair until 8pm when we bathed and went to bed.She never worried, she knew we were with friends and knew what to do … she told us: if a stranger asks you into his car: RUN AND SCREAM. The neighbours would have come out to help. NOW, if a person screams, everyone hides in their bathrooms in the tub. What a pathetic world we live in now.where children can’t live like children.

Rode our bikes behind the “fog” of the mosquito abatement

truck, nobody told us it was DDT. Explains alot

This is one of those strips that resonates on more than one level. I love it when I can craft one of these occasionally. They’re not easy to come by. Terms like ‘Pioneer Breed’ in juxtaposition to ‘video games that were actually DULL’ are hard to discover, y’know, ‘out there’ in the zeitgeist (or whatever the kids are calling it these days)

Hey! If you guys are also Facebook users and abusers, please go ‘like’ The Buckets. Beat the rush. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Buckets/223300241042072

With Eddie playing in the front yard.. They have a right to be worried.

LOL xxx

Where I live there just aren’t kids, period. It’s no wonder we have to do “playdates” and send her to day camp. Of course, to make matters worse, we have copperheads, yellow jacket nests, and a bear that keeps coming into the yard, which makes playing outside unsupervised unadviseable for a six year old.

Check out the video games consoles that are available now boys.

Sad. My brothers and I ran around like wild animals, it was great.

Is that you, Chris? Ha, you sound just like my stepson.

The only thing you need to have fun is a bike and a parent that lets you roam. Friends optional.

Number 6, I have ridden one of those a couple of times. They’re… entertaining.

Saturdays, age six, spend the entire day chasing rabbits. Amazing how far you can get in about 3 hours. Long walk home. When we lived in town – mom’s advice if I got in trouble – go knock on a house door. Someone would be home to help. Age 8, door to door selling girl guide cookies until it was dark. We went to neighbourhoods we never been before. No parents driving us around. Somewhere around nine, I thought I met my first live bear, lumbering down the street. It was big, black with gray hair, moved like an old bear. I followed and circled it to see its face. (Hey! I was 9 – I thought it was a bear!) Turned out to be a Newfie (Newfoundland dog) Who was quite willing to stop and rest while I scratched his head.

LOL …. I love, love the “truly they were a pioneer breed” LOLAnd it’s true you weren’t afraid of bad guys as much as today (late 70’s, early 80’s) ; (