Childhood Summers
When I read this month’s Healthy Kids article, it gave me a strange feeling of sadness to think that we now have
to perform analyses on how to let kids be kids. Have we really digressed that
far from when I was young? I guess we have.
Back in the day, kids didn’t have the screen issues
young people face now, except perhaps rickety old black and white TVs with
rabbit ears that I, for one, mainly watched on Sunday nights—it
was considered a treat! And things we took for granted—such as endless
self-created outlets, mostly set in nature (which could be considered pretty
much anywhere outside)—now appear to require studies, like it’s some new and
foreign concept and not just part of growing up.
I think back to my childhood and the many hours
spent with friends in one of our yards, in a close-by field or playing in the
river. There were lots of kids on our street, and quite likely today we would
be labeled with some kind of acronym because of our endless energy and
unwillingness to be inside and stay still, even for dinner.
And talk about creative juices! When I was
quite young, my friends and I would build jump courses in my front yard for our
dogs. We would haul out all kinds of sticks, blocks and other paraphernalia to
make an actual course of what we thought were beautiful jumps. It was kind of
like an agility course, except that we had never heard of such a thing in the
“formal” sense, and so this idea was completely our own creation. And of
course, we jumped with our dogs to add to the fun—there was no sitting around
for us!
We also loved to roam in the field at the end
of our street. To us, it was the wilderness, with long grass and trees, and the
deer, rabbits, birds and other critters who lived there. We’d spend hours
stretching our creative minds in this little piece of nature, studying some
insect, playing hide and seek, or just running wild, enjoying the freedom.
When I was a little older (still a young
teenager), we’d head down to the river, which was close enough to walk to from
our street. We’d bring our air mattresses and inner tubes, and the dogs of
course, and spend the day floating down the river. We had to walk back up each
time after floating down, which was lots of work, but we were always up for the
task!
I have many fun stories about my childhood and
the creative play that ensued every single day in some form or another. I’m
sure that some of you reading can relate. Without the encumbrance of adults, we
were able to play, create and form a bond with nature. I feel so extremely
grateful I grew up at a time when I was free to have these experiences. They
definitely helped me grow into an independent adult with a deep connection and
appreciation for nature and a keen awareness of my place in it.
