Go Outside and Play, Kids!
You know something I have not seen around here lately? Kids playing with model rockets, model airplanes, parachutes and other outdoor toys I enjoyed as a child. When I was growing up, we had this massive field at the end of my street and through the row of houses backing up to the field. It has baseball fields and soccer fields and just endless room to run and play. There was this little white snack shack and I used to go up and buy sodas and those little hard candies that have fizzy in the middle after you suck on them long enough.
Anyway, there were always kids up there messing with model rockets and airplanes. And when it was windy enough, particularly in March up there in the DC suburbs, kites. I had a kite up there all of the time. We lived around so much wooded land that a wide open clear place was where everyone would go for playtime that involved the sky. I have so many good memories rushing back.
So, I wonder where the kids around here are playing with these kids of toys. I don’t see them at the parks or in the fields? I suppose my pessimistic nature wants to assume they are all inside sitting on sofas in dark rooms playing with the Xbox 360 or something similar. My theory is supported by the kids in my old neighborhood and the whole golf cart controversy (parents fighting the county to try and allow golf carts driven by kids to be OK on our streets, because God forbid their precious children have to actually ride a bike or hoof it to get to the community pool). Kids just don’t seem as active these days. When I take Gigi to the park and we are sweating it out on the swings in the 96 degree heat (Yes! It is 96 here today), we all but have the big, new playground to ourselves.
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