Healthy Outdoor Activities Remembered
Do you remember being told, Go outside and play when you were a kid? Did you ever wonder what to DO? Outside? Not me. Outside was home for me.
We climbed Eddie’s sycamore tree. I loved to hang upside down where Mom could not see me. I rode my bike, we raced. There were lots of kids my age around. It was also a time when big kids and little kids played together no matter what our background was. It was important to be able to hear our parents and we played in 5 different yards.
The slate patio in my yard was better for jump rope than the grassy slope of Patty’s yard. Eddies driveway was slick black pavement so it was great for skating and handball. Sometimes we collected lightning bugs in jars from everyone’s yard and then took the glass jars into a big tent in our yard. We would go off on some wild imaginary adventure in the dark using our bug lights until someone was called home
Every summer our poor pets performed in our little circus acts. We pretended they were trained beasts. We had clowns and magicians and acrobats and even music. It was a lot of fun putting the whole thing together and then performing in front of our grandmothers who gathered on our patio for the hilarious event.
I don’t know who made the lemonade but after the circus there was always something to drink or nibble on. Grandmothers and parents made sure we were all occupied through the summer and everyday after school. Outdoors. Not indoors. There were some homes I never even set foot in but we surely had a lot of fun in our yards.
“Scout” was our favorite imaginary game. We gathered outdoor gear like army canteens, flashlights, and binoculars for spying. The time I borrowed my Dad’s Leupold binoculars for the game I really got in trouble. Mom said they were not toys and I had to treat them with more respect. Today I use those binoculars when I go birdwatching. I don’t let little kids use them either.
Why don’t we play in our backyards anymore? That is where we learned how to get along. No one told us about ‘developing social skills’. We did not allow fighting. Today it is common to have fights in school. Our neighborhoods are empty and quiet. Kids play along indoors with video games or TVs. Kids eat more junk food and get less active and get more fat every year.
I wonder if we all spent more time outdoors we could have healthier kids and happier neighborhoods. Our kids spend a lot of time so protected and supervised in group activities they hardly know how to create outdoor games. Let’s make a difference and create some healthy outdoor fun together today.