Fifty Plus (50+) - Sad story of how we live now

During my ride Sunday afternoon, I saw an eight year old boy standing at the end of his driveway. He approached me as I neared his home.

"Mister, did you see an IPhone?"

I said I had seen something on the road, back a few hundred feet. I turned around and rode back to get it. The little boy followed me. I retrieved it, handed it to the boy, and began to ride away. As I was doing so, a van pulled up across the street. A man started yelling at the boy "I told you to not wander off. Get in the car now. I told you to never talk to strangers."

What I wonder is:

- why does an 8 year old have an IPhone?
- why isn't an 8 year old allowed to walk a couple of hundred feet from his front door in an upscale housing development on a sunny Sunday afternoon?
- why does the father need to get in a car to drive a couple of hundred feet to retrieve his child?

BTW, one reason the boy approached me is that he'd seen me ride by earlier. He was walking with who I assume was his sister and father. Also, I've been riding through there for four years, and live less than a half mile away. It's not like I'm a stranger to people in the neighborhood.

I can't help but think of my own childhood, five decades ago. I didn't ride a bike, but we were allowed to play in the street, on neighbors lawns, at friends' homes, in the woods...... what happened?

Well, only on SOME neighbor's lawns. There was always one neighbor who went on the offensive if a ball went into their yard.

I'm not sure which saddens me more, the fact that children don't get to explore and play anymore or the harsh words from his father for not being perfectly obedient.

Being able to disappear for hours and explore as a child contributed to who I am today. At age six I went by bus to the pool with my 8 year old sister... We got spanked when we were bad, and our mouths washed out with soap for swearing.
It didn't do me any harm, but by today's standards we were abused and neglected. I'm sure glad I grew up in the sixtys.

I grew up in the fifties. I walked to school in Montana even when it was well below zero. I also walked home for lunch.

I rode a bicycle regularly.

We didn't own a television until my grandmother gave us hers when I was in 6th grade. It was a black and white television set.

I can remember having a party line for our telephone.

I loved my childhood! I am so fortunate that I grew up learning to be independent.

I grew up in the fifties. I walked to school in Montana even when it was well below zero. I also walked home for lunch.

I rode a bicycle regularly.

We didn't own a television until my grandmother gave us hers when I was in 6th grade. It was a black and white television set.

I can remember having a party line for our telephone.

I loved my childhood! I am so fortunate that I grew up learning to be independent.

Same here, but I grew up in Wisconsin.

Also grew up in the fifties, turned 11 in 1960. Walked, rode a bicycle, rode the horse, bought my first pick-up truck when I was 12. Worked in the hay fields and mowed lawns for the money. Cost me $100.00. 1946 Ford. Wish I had it now. Yes, times were different. Grew up in the Ozark Mountains in Northern Arkansas.

Hmm!!

My grandfather used to complain about those new-fangled crank phones and why in the world did we need them, and who let kids crank them, anyway. And those cars - heck, a horse and buggy will get you anywhere you want to go!! And typewriters??????????? What ever happened to beautiful cursive? And why in the heck did one need running water in the house, anyways, and those darn flush toilets - all that water wasted when an outhouse served perfectly well.

And those radios - people JUST DON'T TALK TO EACH OTHER ANYMORE - always listening to someone on the radio. Life is going to hell in a handbag.

We have the society and values we have worked diligently to create.

I rode my bike to school as well.

Whenever I read threads like this one it makes me think of being a kid and hearing my parents, older relatives, and their friends talk. I thought then that I was hearing "old people talk", and vowed to never live in the past as they seemed to be doing to my youthful mind. I'd hear things like: 'When I was their age, I walked to school (fill in X number of miles depending on who was telling the story)." "Kids just don't have any respect these days." "No one seems to know that value of a hard day's work anymore." "Why I would never have thought I'd need to lock my doors." "People just need to slow down and not be in such a hurry all the time."

Some, I'm guessing eight or more, years ago, I overheard my two sons talking to other kids of people our age at our house for dinner. My oldest said, "Yeah, they're upstairs talking geezer talk. Don't know why they're so hung up on the past." Well, it seems I've turned into my parents. I do, however, take comfort in the recognition that my kids will turn into their parents too.

It's going that way over here in the UK too!

There's so much publicity about child molesters that many parents are terrified to let their kids out of their sight. The reality is that there probably aren't any more such perverts about now than there were when I was young (I'm 55 years old) but the media latch on to every tragic case and bombard us with coverage.

Obviously if a child is mistreated it is a terrible thing, but what about the damage being done to young people by smothering them, and ferrying them about everywhere by car? How are they supposed to grow up to be confident, happy, outgoing adults if they are taught from an early age that the world is a terrifying place full of evil people?

These attitudes are horribly infectious. I was in my kitchen a couple of years ago, washing some dishes and peering out at the hillside opposite when a little girl shot down the backstreet on her bicycle, lost control of it and crashed.

She let out a blood-curdling scream and started crying out for her mother. I rushed to my back door and was just about to go and see if the child was okay, when fear took hold of me. Did I really want someone to see me standing over a screaming child? What if someone thought I had done something to her?

I was ashamed of myself for hesitating, but I did. I had just made my mind up to go and see to the child anyway when her mother appeared and took her away. I thought to myself then - "What kind of world have we made, to make caring adults too frightened to offer comfort to a small child?"

The problem today is that reproduction is not strictly controlled.

I'm a little behind you guys, for the most part - I grew up in the late 50's, early 60's (only 4 in 1960!). I too grew up riding bikes, etc. I think the biggest difference is in the news. I don't remember anywhere near as much gloom and doom in the news back then. It's all gotten blown way out of proportion. It's gotten to the point where there are cases where, say, a kid gets kidnapped in California and it winds up as the lead story in Cincinnati, even though there's nothing to suggest a local connection. Then a few days later, maybe a similar case happens in, say, New York City. Again, nothing to suggest a local connection, but it's all over the local news. Repeat that enough times, and suddenly most parents have the idea firmly embedded in their heads that they can't let their child out of their sight or the child will be kidnapped. To add to that, you've got 20/20, Nightline, America's Most Wanted, and so forth all telling everyone how much we're in danger from everything under the sun, from online sexual predators to whatever the latest threat they can come up with is, all in the name of increased ratings. The official FBI statistics show that violent crime has been dropping every year for the last few years - could you tell that from the news media?

I don't remember anywhere near as much gloom and doom in the news back then.


Yes, those stories of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the thousands of men killed in WWII and Korea, those awful newsreels and battles - well, they were just sort of relaxing. And, it was kind of fun ducking under our desks in preparation for the "BOMB" from Russia, and keeping our gas tanks 1/2 full so we could - millions of us - run off to the mountains in some sort of choreographed chaos.

Oh, and the race riots and Watts and JFK, and Bobby and Medger Evers and MLK and others all being killed in about a years time . . .

Oh, and the brilliant flash hundreds of miles away - visible in San Diego - of those friendly atomic bomb tests in Yucca Flats, Nevada.

Sigh - things were just simpler back then.

WE had a family down the street when our kids were growing up who wouldn't let their kids out if it was too hot or too cold. Ours were encouraged to go outside. They were required to participate in family activities which included occasional 30 mile rides, yard work, canoing, backpacking/hiking and shooting. Our son was seven when he did his first winter backpacking trip in the Smoky Mountains N Park. They were required to run 4 days a week before breakfast with their parents. TV was limited.

We were and are the weirdos of the neighborhood. The "kids" have carried the outside mantra into adulthood and are passing it on to the grandkids.


Al

I'm a little behind you guys, for the most part - I grew up in the late 50's, early 60's (only 4 in 1960!). I too grew up riding bikes, etc. I think the biggest difference is in the news. I don't remember anywhere near as much gloom and doom in the news back then. It's all gotten blown way out of proportion. It's gotten to the point where there are cases where, say, a kid gets kidnapped in California and it winds up as the lead story in Cincinnati, even though there's nothing to suggest a local connection. Then a few days later, maybe a similar case happens in, say, New York City. Again, nothing to suggest a local connection, but it's all over the local news. Repeat that enough times, and suddenly most parents have the idea firmly embedded in their heads that they can't let their child out of their sight or the child will be kidnapped. To add to that, you've got 20/20, Nightline, America's Most Wanted, and so forth all telling everyone how much we're in danger from everything under the sun, from online sexual predators to whatever the latest threat they can come up with is, all in the name of increased ratings. The official FBI statistics show that violent crime has been dropping every year for the last few years - could you tell that from the news media?

Correct.

Terrify the American wife/mother and you can get anything you want.

PS DON'T travel today!!!!!! It might rain. Please stay tuned to the weather panic channel for updates.

No one didn't let their kids ride a bus to school because of WWII or Korea and hell, during the CMC the damm kids were still went to school.

News was a 'paper' or 7:00 news on one of 2-3 channels not 24/7/365 and endless entertainment shows about ****/mutilation/abduction/predators/etc/etc. Oh, lets not forget the Internet please.

No comparison yesterday and today.... imo

All these comments hit home with me as I have been feeling sad for our society for quite a while. Especially the kids and the way a lot of our "culture" has impacted on their lives. I worked a few years ago in a summer program for kids, ages 7-17, to get them involved in outdoor activities (hiking, bicycling, golf, baseball, swimming, fishing). We could not get any kids to participate in this free community-sponsored program! Why? They were sleeping in until 3 in the afternoon after being up all night playing video games! The few that did show up could not hike a mile on a level woodland trail as they were so out of shape (and not necessarily overweight, just weak and pale). I (age 54 then) and my co-worker (age 62) could physically outlast all of them. It was sad.

Not only that, but I see no joy in kids today (or most adults). It is like the world has become a scarey, stressful, disconnected place. Yet everybody is on cell phones texting or talking and still not connected to their neighbors or family or community. Loneliness is epidemic and I think it is just getting worse.

I am so glad I grew up when I did (late 50s, sixties, and seventies) and had so much fun doing all the outdoor stuff with my friends like riding bikes, playing Army and cowboys and indians and catching tadpoles down in the creek behind our house. We'd build forts in the woods and play outside from sun-up until after dark around 11pm. Summer was something we looked forward to more than Christmas.

Those kids in our program? They all said they hated summer-"nothing to do". I can't imagine what their lives are like and would not want to know.

No wonder so many older people turn to living in their memories when times were happier for them, at least. Yeah, I'm "old" in that way I guess...

We have spent too much time and effort protecting the stupid from themselves. And it has distilled the gene pool into a gene puddle.

Along with "the box" creating a culture of fear helped along by an inept and corrupt gub'ment. We have little to fear from climate change,it is ourselves that will spell the end.

Have a nice day. :D

I'm not sure which saddens me more, the fact that children don't get to explore and play anymore or the harsh words from his father for not being perfectly obedient.

Or why he had to get in an SUV to look for his kid.

Yes, those stories of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the thousands of men killed in WWII and Korea, those awful newsreels and battles - well, they were just sort of relaxing. And, it was kind of fun ducking under our desks in preparation for the "BOMB" from Russia, and keeping our gas tanks 1/2 full so we could - millions of us - run off to the mountains in some sort of choreographed chaos.

Oh, and the race riots and Watts and JFK, and Bobby and Medger Evers and MLK and others all being killed in about a years time . . .

Oh, and the brilliant flash hundreds of miles away - visible in San Diego - of those friendly atomic bomb tests in Yucca Flats, Nevada.

Sigh - things were just simpler back then.

There well may have been fewer stories about child abduction in the news. You are misreading the quoted poster's point.

BTW, I knew, and other kids in my neighborhood knew, not to take candy from strangers or to get into cars with them. We still did anything and everything outside we could think of.

The 24-hour news cycle brought on by the cable news channels is what happened. There are no more -- murders, rapes, child molestations, etc. than there were 40 or 50 years ago, but back then the news was only one for a half an hour every night. Out of sight, out of mind . . .

And, I seem to have forgotten some other non-doom and gloom stories from "way back then . . ." when life was simpler and things were - well, just about perfect.

Those pictures of stacks of bones left from 6 million deaths in Germany and about 20 million in Russia - well, those were across the ocean, and really didn't concern us. They certainly weren't "Doomy and gloomy"

And, those kids who were a bit different - they hobbled or used wheel chairs or couldn't talk or had seizures - you know - those folks - well they were happy in those big institutions with the high walls, never mind the sadism and sexual abuse and death. But, you are right, they never made the headlines much.

And those folks with a different skin color - well, you never!! We and the KKK kept them in their place - you know - those OTHER "equal" schools. But, again, that did not make much news until - well . . . .

Oh the joys and simplicity of days gone by. No "doom and gloom" back then, because most of us did not know about it. Too bad those newspapers and news outlets let us in on the secret.

Yep, it is confusing. I like to tell people about really walking a mile to school in the winter. It wasn't a hardship, it was a great big snow fort snowball fight competition. In the spring the elementary school was surrounded by hundreds of bikes. Not anymore, the same school requires kids to ride the bus from that distance. Now kids are forced into too many boundries, in the house,the yard and of course the car. The car is an inseperable part of them now. Not long ago I stopped at a phone kiosk to look at the disposable one time chargers, the young girl there explained that car chargers were more practical because they were multi-use. I explained that I needed it for emergency back up when backpacking,canoeing or cycle-touring. She repeated her argument for the car charger. I repeated my statement. We went through this scenario 4 more times before I saw the light bulb light, her eyes grew really wide and she just stared speechless and dumbfounded as I walked away. It was completely beyond her imagination to be seperated from her car.

Marc

And, I seem to have forgotten some other non-doom and gloom stories from "way back then . . ." when life was simpler and things were - well, just about perfect.

Those pictures of stacks of bones left from 6 million deaths in Germany and about 20 million in Russia - well, those were across the ocean, and really didn't concern us. They certainly weren't "Doomy and gloomy"

And, those kids who were a bit different - they hobbled or used wheel chairs or couldn't talk or had seizures - you know - those folks - well they were happy in those big institutions with the high walls, never mind the sadism and sexual abuse and death. But, you are right, they never made the headlines much.

And those folks with a different skin color - well, you never!! We and the KKK kept them in their place - you know - those OTHER "equal" schools. But, again, that did not make much news until - well . . . .

Oh the joys and simplicity of days gone by. No "doom and gloom" back then, because most of us did not know about it. Too bad those newspapers and news outlets let us in on the secret.
I think the point is not that the world was more safe or less dangerous 50 years ago (or conversely, that it's gotten any more dangerous, or that these kids these days are any more disrespectful), simply that the 24 hour news cycle, along with the internet makes the bad news more pervasive.

Heck, we can now log in to multiple message boards and read people's gloomy stories that never even make the news. It's a constant bombardment of fear and negativity.

The 24-hour news cycle brought on by the cable news channels is what happened. There are no more -- murders, rapes, child molestations, etc. than there were 40 or 50 years ago, but back then the news was only one for a half an hour every night. Out of sight, out of mind . . .

Some of the posters here might remember the Charley Ross case. :-) If not, Wikipedia has a nice capsule on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Ross

Even though that case was known to generations of parents, oddly enough, their kids were allowed outside alone.

Not meaning to... inflame.. but shouldn't all this be on the soap box channel/forum? :rolleyes:

Had a group of youngsters ride by last summer... noticed them stopped in a group. Seems the chain went awol on the little guy's ride. I ambled over.. intro'd myself.. noted how I was grandpa to two kids around their age. They all sat around wide eyed as I made the adjustment.... making good eye contact showing confidence. I got a nice heart felt thank you otta it.. mom strolled by several days later when I was out and threw me a nice thanks and smile.. her view alone turned out worth the effort.. then some.

Kids today are like we were.. much different environment though obviously today. When they age & their hormones start raging.. might be a different story. Still.. parental envolvement with sound discipline is the same game as yesterday.

Yes, those stories of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the thousands of men killed in WWII and Korea, those awful newsreels and battles - well, they were just sort of relaxing. And, it was kind of fun ducking under our desks in preparation for the "BOMB" from Russia, and keeping our gas tanks 1/2 full so we could - millions of us - run off to the mountains in some sort of choreographed chaos.

Oh, and the race riots and Watts and JFK, and Bobby and Medger Evers and MLK and others all being killed in about a years time . . .

Oh, and the brilliant flash hundreds of miles away - visible in San Diego - of those friendly atomic bomb tests in Yucca Flats, Nevada.

Sigh - things were just simpler back then.

Those are large-scale cultural events - not quite the same thing.

As a parent these days, I'm told that if I do not personally keep my eye on my children every moment of the day, if I allow them to engage in conversations with adults, if I permit them to go into a public bathroom without an escort, if I let them go play in the woods with their friends, if I let my ten-year-old to stay home alone for an hour, not only will they die horrible deaths, but I will be completely responsible for it.

It's all crap, of course, but when I get angry calls from neighbors complaining that I allow my ten and eight-year-olds to "roam the neighborhood without supervision", or let them ride bikes down a steep hill at high speed, it's pretty obvious that a lot of people believe the crap.

I'm with DnvrFox. Nothing much has changed except that people now are much more sedentary and the population is a lot larger then when I was a kid. It may seem worst because now we have more inforation, more in real time and more information sources then the old days. We only had the radio, telephone, snail mail and newspapers then.

The explosion of information is why things might appear to be a disaster. However, the world has never seen such stability. I read military/cultural history and we've got it made now.

Cheer up.

Al

I made a post last year (I forget on which thread) about the day I rode my bike past an elementary school at lettin' out time and was completely caught up in the gridlock of Stupid Unnecessary Vehicles.

It was a gorgeous day, the kind where you would give anything to be outdoors but no, these children had to be strapped into a car seat and enclosed in 1 1/2 tons of metal and glass in order to transport them home.

My post specifically called out one alleged parent who drove all of 200 yards from the school gate to her driveway. Apparently strolling over to the school, then having the poor child walk that colossal distance back was just too much of an ordeal. Did I mention it was a gorgeous day?

Anyway, today I saw something which beat even that. I live in a rural sub-division where the big yellow taxis drop the golden children off at the end of their driveways so they don't have to walk any further than necessary. I was out walking my dog an hour or so ago and saw a kid get off the bus at the end of his drive, where his mommy was waiting in the SUV. She drove out onto the road, turned around, then drove him up the driveway to the house. About a hundred yards. I didn't wait around to see if she made him walk the last 20 feet into the house or if she carried him on her shoulders.

The kid was high-school aged.

I made a post last year (I forget on which thread) about the day I rode my bike past an elementary school at lettin' out time and was completely caught up in the gridlock of Stupid Unnecessary Vehicles.

It was a gorgeous day, the kind where you would give anything to be outdoors but no, these children had to be strapped into a car seat and enclosed in 1 1/2 tons of metal and glass in order to transport them home.

My post specifically called out one alleged parent who drove all of 200 yards from the school gate to her driveway. Apparently strolling over to the school, then having the poor child walk that colossal distance back was just too much of an ordeal. Did I mention it was a gorgeous day?

Anyway, today I saw something which beat even that. I live in a rural sub-division where the big yellow taxis drop the golden children off at the end of their driveways so they don't have to walk any further than necessary. I was out walking my dog an hour or so ago and saw a kid get off the bus at the end of his drive, where his mommy was waiting in the SUV. She drove out onto the road, turned around, then drove him up the driveway to the house. About a hundred yards. I didn't wait around to see if she made him walk the last 20 feet into the house or if she carried him on her shoulders.

The kid was high-school aged.
And I'm sure for the 100 yard drive, or the driveway drive, they had the onboard DVD player going. Heavens forbid these kids go 2 minutes without TV/visual stimuli.

Shoot, I didn't realize that cute animated flick I saw a couple years ago was a documentary! =:O

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Bf48JKOl5HQ/Snjd5KnqRwI/AAAAAAAABWA/jEUgjX3cUg0/s400/JrX-illustration.jpg

And, it was kind of fun ducking under our desks in preparation for the "BOMB" from Russia, and keeping our gas tanks 1/2 full so we could - millions of us - run off to the mountains in some sort of choreographed chaos.

Wasn't that great propaganda? They didn't do it where I lived in Sarasota Florida.

Why? We were in what was ground zero for the Cuban Missile crisis. If the missiles had been launched we would have been glow-in-the-dark bug-splat just a few minutes later. So best not to frighten the hoi polloi.

Heck, sitting in the car, waiting for our Mom to come out of what ever store she was in; those were fun times, making up games. We knew how to roll down the windows to stay cool in summer. I can remember lying down on the package shelf behind the back seat as we drove along, watching the world recede behind me.

I don't think things are more dangerous on a day to day level now. I still have the transcript of a call I got from a stranger when I was just shy of being a teen, who wanted to know if I liked photography and he had a few ideas... On one boy scout camping trip, a group of locals decided they'd come and shoot us up. Their only mistake was that they rousted the camp of some hunters before they found us, and the hunters found us first. We offered them tents, sleeping bags and breakfast for a little sentry duty. We went to sleep with bullets whizzing over our heads.

It's not like I had a primitive life. I never knew a time without TV or McDonalds; my veggies were frozen not canned. I learned how to use a calculator at 7 or 8 (Curta, mechanical), my parents got into social networking early, communicating with people all over the world with their Ham radios.

But I do remember being much more free-ranging, going fishing at the bay over a mile away using minnows I had caught by hand for bait, riding over heavily traveled bridges on my way to the beach, walking home from the automobile museum on the other end of town. I really feel sorry for kids in gated communities. They don't have the contact with the world that we did. No forests to run through, no streams to swim in.

http://www.pointhappy.com/gcf/Gordons1stBikeSm.jpg

We forget the tremendous impact of going from 125 million folks in the US of A (and about 1.5 billion world-wide) when I was young to 350 million now in the US of A and close to 7 billion world wide. The impact of that is incredible on all of us, yet NO politician is willing to take the issue on (except perhaps the Chinese).

All of the "duck and cover" stuff and keeping our gas tanks 1/2 full was propaganda, designed, I guess, to let us feel that we (or someone) had some control. In reality, none of it would work. I remember I was charged with marking and signing Fall Out Shelters when I worked for the phone company, where they stored dry crackers and water.

As a parent these days, I'm told that if I do not personally keep my eye on my children every moment of the day, if I allow them to engage in conversations with adults, if I permit them to go into a public bathroom without an escort, if I let them go play in the woods with their friends, if I let my ten-year-old to stay home alone for an hour, not only will they die horrible deaths, but I will be completely responsible for it.

It's all crap, of course, but when I get angry calls from neighbors complaining that I allow my ten and eight-year-olds to "roam the neighborhood without supervision", or let them ride bikes down a steep hill at high speed, it's pretty obvious that a lot of people believe the crap.

This.

Heh, "Geezer talk". I suppose it is. It is rather sad that kids don't "play" anymore. I grew up in the 60s, and during summer, we would ride out bikes from morning until night. If we weren't doing that, we were playing in someone's yard. And yes, we did have the required "mean old man" who would yell at us to "get off my lawn!" We didn't have phones of course, and we were out of our parents' sight for hours. That just would not happen today, would it?

Behind our house was a large field. Several backyards abutted the field as well. At the edge of the field was a large abandoned building. We called it "The old barn". Of course, it wasn't a barn at all. We were never sure what it was, but it was old and creepy. Of course, we played in and around there all the time. That wouldn't happen today either. The place would be fenced off, and strictly worded warning signs would be posted everywhere. For the record, the city tore it down, circa 1967.

On one edge of the field was a fairly high hill. Probably only about ten feet high, covered with grass, but to little kids, it was huge! Summer nights, we would hang out there, just horsing around or "watching for UFOs!" Sadly, the only UFOs we saw were aircraft. But we had a swell time. Oh, and mom and dad could see us easily from the windows. I remember one guy's dad, an engineer at Raytheon, coming out one night to join us. He brought his telescope, and we all got a lesson in astronomy. Damn, that was great! But this would not happen today.

Seriously, I have no idea what is going on today, and I wonder what the country will be like 30 or 50 years from today.

Perhaps the saddest, and most ridiculous things I have seen in recent years: Kids riding bikes on the sidewalk, while mom and dad ride along closely behind,,, In SUV's!
Yes, I've seen a few of these. Words elude me on this one.

When I was 2 years old, whenever I could escape out the door, I would either head for the drug store (candy) or to the high school my dad taught at. The high school kids would lift me through the window and I would hide from my dad in his classroom. Some how at 2years old, that seemed fun. But then again, the high school kids thought it was fun too (small quite western town).

Yes, kids today do spend too much time playing video games and parents driving the kids to school is really bad; but try going to the closest skate board/bmx park and watch the kids. At the one closest to my house, I see kids from 5 year olds to 25 year olds taking turns and even helping teach each other stunts. They have fun and show an amazing amount of cooperation.

Yes, kids today do spend too much time playing video games and parents driving the kids to school is really bad; but try going to the closest skate board/bmx park and watch the kids. At the one closest to my house, I see kids from 5 year olds to 25 year olds taking turns and even helping teach each other stunts. They have fun and show an amazing amount of cooperation.

Nearly a decade ago, when my son was still school-aged, we had a group of home-school families who would regularly get together near a skate board park. I was amazed that the other parents didn't see the positive things you mention. All they could see was that many of the teen-agers had piercings or tattoos or dyed hair. The skate boarders were always nice to me when I went over to watch. I really admired their hard-earned skills and their general sense of community. Those types of kids give me optimism for our future.

We have a new skate board park. It is right on the MUP I ride regularly, and I enjoy immensely watching them. It is a huge park, and there are maybe 100-200 kids out there with endurance, amazing balance, skills - all working together. I've never seen a fight or anything like that. I wish I had that balance.

Well, only on SOME neighbor's lawns. There was always one neighbor who went on the offensive if a ball went into their yard.

Did that guy live near your too?? You know, the guy who took my football the time it rolled into his yard and stabbed it repeatedly with his knife. And the same guy who was arrested for exposing himself to little kids in the park across the street from the grade school where I was probably huddled against the wall in the basement for a nuclear bomb drill at the time. It was about the same time when the local Parade of Homes featured bomb shelters as the big sales point.

I can't wait for my grandchild to get his own Iphone so we can talk face to face, any time, from across the country.

And sure, it was great riding the bus downtown by myself to meet my cousins when I was in junior high, but my kids have been traveling the globe since they were in college. I didn't leave north America until I was in my 40's, and my kids have lived in Japan and Russia before the age of 30.

Oh, an my son-in-law is covered in tattoos and was the front man for a heavy metal band. So he obviously must have problems. He also traveled the world with his band, established the first chapter of Amnesty International at his university when in college, and now is an executive at AARP with a history of community service to the disadvantaged and aged (us).

So yeah, the old days were great, and kids today are too protected, have too much, and are disrespectful. As for me, I just miss my football...:(

Personally I don't blame parents for not allowing their children to wander the neighborhood. Two teenage girls were assaulted and murdered here a couple of years ago. A 14-year-old walking to school in the morning and a 17-year-old who was running in a local park after school. There are children who have been kidnapped from their front yards here.

I used to walk home about a mile from kindergarten by myself, but I would never let my child walk home alone today. There are just too many weirdos, and they are much more prevalent than they were when I was a child.

Yes, kids today do spend too much time playing video games and parents driving the kids to school is really bad; but try going to the closest skate board/bmx park and watch the kids. At the one closest to my house, I see kids from 5 year olds to 25 year olds taking turns and even helping teach each other stunts. They have fun and show an amazing amount of cooperation.

I witnessed the same thing at Pymatuning State Park here in PA. There was a dirt ramp kids, and some adults, rode their bikes over. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even though they were strangers.

I mentioned my experience of a couple of years ago here when I was riding my bike and encountered a small group of dads, teenagers, and pre-teens who had lost their radio controlled airplane about 25 or 30 feet up in an alder tree. With their permission, I climbed up and freed it. The climb wasn't a pushover, but almost any of the kids I hung out with when I was young would have been up the tree without a second thought. The group was quite thankful and seemed to think I'd done something really brave.

I live in a condo complex and several families there have young children. I like to tune up my bikes and work on them right by my garage door, as the sun hits there first. A neighbor's boy, about six years old, often rode his bike around the driveways and began stopping to talk with me about them whenever I was there. I should have known better, but I love talking with kids about bikes (or almost anything). A couple of months later I saw him in the parking lot and waved. He literally whimpered with fear, turned tail, and ran. I had no idea what had happened, but upon seeing me again later he said (from a hundred feet away) that he had been told never to speak to me again. So sad that a little spontaneous friendship put a needless shroud of fear over several people, including me.

There are still kids that are active and can roam, yet the studies and stats seem to indicate there are more flabby sick kids than ever before.

The challenges of life have not really changed...

We had to call Mom every other day at 5 p.m. if we were going to be gone for more that two days; my brother and I started doing longer trips at about age 9 and 12. If we shot, trapped, caught, picked, or found somewhat to eat, we could stay out for a week or so. The hike to a phone took all afternoon and evening, jeez Mom!

We thought nothing of being many miles out in the woods, walking through the neighborhood with rifles, rafting all day at the quarry, etc. Our parents had done about the same, more seriously though, I guess, as food was somewhat in question in those times - I mean at table, with the Depression and all, so hunting, fishing, foraging, etc. was more than just fun and getting the Hell out of a disfunctional house.

That hasn't got out of style either, now has it?

Heh.

Great stories you all!

I live in a condo complex and several families there have young children. I like to tune up my bikes and work on them right by my garage door, as the sun hits there first. A neighbor's boy, about six years old, often rode his bike around the driveways and began stopping to talk with me about them whenever I was there. I should have known better, but I love talking with kids about bikes (or almost anything). A couple of months later I saw him in the parking lot and waved. He literally whimpered with fear, turned tail, and ran. I had no idea what had happened, but upon seeing me again later he said (from a hundred feet away) that he had been told never to speak to me again. So sad that a little spontaneous friendship put a needless shroud of fear over several people, including me.

Perhaps, the saddest part is that the adults did not bother coming over and meeting their neighbor, preferring instead to keep you as a stranger.

I can't help but think of my own childhood, five decades ago. I didn't ride a bike, but we were allowed to play in the street, on neighbors lawns, at friends' homes, in the woods...... what happened?

I live a county away from you.
Sometime go onto a state web site where you can look at your area by zip code at the sexual offenders registry.
After I retired I was sometimes asked to walk neighborhood children to and from school on days that the wife and I did not go biking. My help was requested by the local police officer and the head of security at the grade school. They were having a big problem with strangers trying to pick up young kids around the school.
One day I punched my zip code into the PA sexual offenders registry. OMG!!! It took a lot of paper to print the list out for the head of security at the school.

My youth was the late 1940s into the mid-1950s. Wandered all over the woods around the city. Spent a lot of free time fishing in the river. A lot of time on the bicycle. Never any problems with sexual offenders in those days. And being shortly after WWII there were few cars on the roads.

When I was a kid I used to eat different colored gum drops in the Candyland Forest and fart Rainbows!

I've heard about Nature Deficit Disorder. I have 4 boys, the two oldest (19 and 23) are Eagle Scouts. Both performed in marching band. The oldest was a lifeguard his junior and senior year of high school. The 19 year old was the drum major for the marching band his senior year, and performed with the Drum and Bugle Corps known as the Holy Name Cadets in their color guard the past two summers.

My 13 year old is a Life Scout (next rank is Eagle), he did a three day 25 mile hike through the Ocala National Forest about a week and a half ago (I was on the trip but stayed at base camp, and helped provide some logistical support throughout their hike). He plays trumpet, guitar, and drums. I have been Cubmaster, Scoutmaster and so forth since 1995. I am the Cubmaster once again for my 7 year old who is a Tiger Cub Scout, I am an Assistant Scoutmaster and Life to Eagle Coordinator for my son's troop.

I need to fix up a few more bikes, and I want to start getting him out on some rides at the local parks and the beach with me. It would be hard for him to ride around to friend's houses as the main friend he visits for garage band practice lives on the other side of a busy street (8 lanes) and an interstate highway to get there. That is part of the problem now, most of his friends are either right next door or across the street, or far away.

Perhaps, the saddest part is that the adults did not bother coming over and meeting their neighbor, preferring instead to keep you as a stranger.

In the '80s and '90s I lived in a small university city that had decided (with the enthusiastic support of the local developers) to restrict lot sizes to about the size of a postage stamp. Because we were all living on top of each other, there was a natural tendency to try really hard to not invade the privacy of our neighbors. We didn't realize how few of our neighbors we had gotten to know until we moved a few miles out of town to a much older development with one-third to two acre plots. In this neighborhood, everyone knew everyone and constantly met in the street and at the fences to chat.

I think that the family in the condo may be unconsciously doing the same thing we did. They may just have developed the habit of giving everyone as much space and privacy as such crowded settings allow.

I live a county away from you.
Sometime go onto a state web site where you can look at your area by zip code at the sexual offenders registry.
After I retired I was sometimes asked to walk neighborhood children to and from school on days that the wife and I did not go biking. My help was requested by the local police officer and the head of security at the grade school. They were having a big problem with strangers trying to pick up young kids around the school.
One day I punched my zip code into the PA sexual offenders registry. OMG!!! It took a lot of paper to print the list out for the head of security at the school.

My youth was the late 1940s into the mid-1950s. Wandered all over the woods around the city. Spent a lot of free time fishing in the river. A lot of time on the bicycle. Never any problems with sexual offenders in those days. And being shortly after WWII there were few cars on the roads.

The Megan's Law websites give some bogus results. Collegeville, PA, for instance, must teem with 'sex offenders.' I'm sure it has nothing to do with the state prison a couple of miles away.

BTW, sex isn't a new, radical idea to be controlled. I bet your parents knew about it. As did their parents. And even though there were dirty old men around back then, people still let their kids out.

The Megan's Law websites give some bogus results. Collegeville, PA, for instance, must teem with 'sex offenders.' I'm sure it has nothing to do with the state prison a couple of miles away.

BTW, sex isn't a new, radical idea to be controlled. I bet your parents knew about it. As did their parents. And even though there were dirty old men around back then, people still let their kids out.

I have to agree with you. The percentage of sex offenders in the general population probably hasn't increased one iota. With changes in social attitudes though, I'm willing to bet that such offenders are less likely to act on their impulses, given that children are better trained to deal with them, the increased likelihood that they can be caught, and the greater attention given to them. Media attention has made this seem like a tremendous problem.

The biggest dangers from sex offenders though are your own relatives. 82% of them are known to the child according to a study in Idaho. So perhaps a kid is safer on the street than in the home. ;)