| Subject: Re: Take advantage of summer |
Author:
Kelly Gray
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Date Posted: 20:41:43 06/25/13 Tue
In reply to:
Wes
's message, "Take advantage of summer" on 14:27:53 06/05/13 Wed
This might explain a lot about why kids don't play outside anymore.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-462091/How-children-lost-right-roam-generations.html
>Another column picked up from the paper that readers
>might enjoy:
>
>----------
>
>"School's out for the summer," Alice Cooper sang a
>good many years ago. You can still hear it on rock
>oldies stations, I guess, although I don't listen to
>them any more. It reminds me of a time too far gone by.
>
>But school is out for the summer, and I suppose there
>are a lot of kids relieved about it.
>
>I know I was, lo those many years ago. It meant
>hanging out at the lake and a lot of other fun things.
>School getting out for the summer was one thing to
>look forward to over the many slow, bleak months of
>winter when my spirit was confined to a dull
>classroom. Then, summer went past all too quickly.
>Some things never change.
>
>Back then, summer was a time to be outside, to have
>fun, to explore on my bike, go swimming with friends.
>This was in the days before home air conditioning was
>common, and it could get awfully uncomfortable inside;
>it could be a lot cooler to be in the shade outside
>with the breeze blowing.
>
>I'll have to admit there's a certain amount of
>selectivity in my memories of those days -- I probably
>don't have as much memory of things that weren't as
>much fun.
>
>Up until the time I was in the middle of high school,
>my grandparents had a house near ours, and they had an
>acre and a half or two acres or so of lawn. My folks
>had about as much, and some of it on a steep hill.
>Being young and available, I was detailed to mow all
>of it -- with a push mower. Let's just say it wasn't a
>relaxing process of sitting in the seat and steering.
>It took days to do it all, and if I got the least bit
>lazy by reading or spending time at the lake the
>lawns would be ready to start over again by the time I
>got them done. That may have something to do with the
>fact that I still hate mowing lawns. As far as I'm
>concerned, they're inexorable and evil.
>
>Then there were the chickens. My grandparents kept
>several hundred of them, and guess who got to feed
>them and collect the eggs? Worse, chickens produce
>more manure than they do eggs, at least as far as my
>memory goes, and that got to be a rather smelly pain
>in the neck to deal with, too. As a result, I can
>occasionally manage to eat eggs, but my tolerance for
>eating chicken is still very limited, mostly because
>we had a lot of it.
>
>All in all, I didn't lack much for things to do in the
>summer. I suppose there were times when I was bored
>and didn't know what to do, but there weren't many of
>them. But even with all that, I hardly looked forward
>with anticipation to going back to school in the fall.
>All the yard work and chores was still vastly
>preferable to sitting in a dull classroom.
>
>Now, all this is leading up to a point, and that is
>that times must have changed somewhere along the way.
>I know that when I get out and drive around town in
>the summer, I hardly ever see kids, even using the
>playgrounds at the parks. They're empty on a nice
>summer afternoon. Where are the kids? Good question --
>I have to assume that they're inside, sitting next to
>the air conditioner, playing video games or something.
>
>Now, I know that's not always the case. There are at
>least a few kids that are mowing lawns, doing chores
>around the place and whatnot, or have summer jobs or
>something -- it's just that I don't seem to see them.
>
>There are organized summer recreation activities,
>especially for the younger kids -- but on the odd
>occasion I've checked them out over the years, there
>doesn't seem to be a lot of interest there, either.
>The buses to the pool we used to have in this town are
>long gone, due to lack of participation.
>
>Like I said, times have to have changed. Maybe it's
>for the good -- but I doubt it. Kids, get out and play
>a little. It's summer! Don't let it go to waste! Fall
>and school comes all too soon!
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