Summer - Then and Now

I'm sitting here at 8:30 a.m., windows open, listening to the birds on what promises to be a fine early summer day. The sun is beaming through a thin layer of early haze and the day carries the promise of hot & muggy by afternoon. Odd, though... something's missing. Oh, that's right! I don't hear any children roaring up & down the street on their bikes or chanting jump-rope rhymes or shrieking their way through a game of tag.

On mornings like this I remember rushing through breakfast so I could run down the street to the house where "The Twins", Patty & Debbie Cramer lived. We were an inseparable threesome through most of my childhood. Our summer days started early - usually by 7:30 or so when our fathers went off to work. We'd occupy ourselvs with the sorts of activities that a lot of kids today wouldn't even have heard of. How often do you see little girls chalking the sidewalk for a game of hopscotch these days? (They'd probably get detained by the Homeowners Association if they tried it here!). There were "make pretend" games that would go on for days as we made up storylines for the characters each of us chose to "be". We'd play frenzied games of kick-ball in the quiet street where we all lived.

By lunchtime, we'd be ready for a break in whatever we'd been occupied with, have lunch (usually together "catered" by my mom or Mrs. Cramer) and be right back outside, splashing & laughing together in the Cramers' kiddie pool, or doing one craft or another until suppertime. And after dinner, we'd be out & about until dusk. Just as the streetlights came on, all the moms in the neighborhood would be out on their porches calling the little lambs home for a bath and then to bed. At the end of a typical summer day, we were tired and slept soundly on sheets that carried the fresh smell that only line-drying can impart.

I wonder if there are still neighborhoods like that. I know there must be, but I can't remember the last time I saw one. It seems as if children have lost the desire or the ability or the freedom to just be kids and play in a non-structured environment. Our pick-up kick-ball games have translated into soccer leagues, too often with parental supervision that doesn't set a very good example when it comes to teaching kids about cooperation and sportsmanship. The "make believe" games where we were the authors and the actors let us open wide our imaginations. Those games have been replaced by computer games that are for the most part solitary and sedentary and violent.

On mornings like this, when the only sounds I hear in the neighborhood are my feathered neighbors and an occasional car passing, I really miss hearing children at play, and I can't help but feel a little sorry for them. They're missing out on so many of summer's simple, spontaneous joys.

"A - my name is Alice and my husband's name is Art and we live in Albuquerque and we sell Artichokes! B - my name is Bertha and my husband's name is Bob...."

Teach some child in your life a jump-rope rhyme. Defy your neighbors' sensibilities and chalk the sidewalk for hopscotch. Play ball or go on a "nature hike" through the neighborhood looking for butterflies, feathers, or a variety of leaves. You'll start seeing the "little things" again, and maybe even feel a little younger yourself! Let's all try to bring back a little taste of "the good old days".