Keep Them Safe, Keep Them Calm
This sounds like when I was a kid, except the part about the drugs. Those didn’t start seriously coming along until my younger brother’s time. Plus I’d never have been a candidate for them anyway.
I grew up surrounded by woods, swamp, cranberry bogs, sandpits, old buildings and equpment, a sawmill, with the nearest house 1/3 of a mile away. We’d spend whole days off in the woods. My mother preferred us not to come home bleeding, but otherwise nothing much mattered. We’d not quite make it when jumping a ditch, or go wading in the brook, and come home wet. We made bows and arrows. We made slingshots, or had store bought ones. We used sharp tools.
Playgrounds were a real kick, especially when they had the merry go rounds that wouldn’t pass the liability test these days. It was great if someone was there who could push it up to dizzying speeds.
When I drive by the modern playgrounds, my thoughts alternate between thinking they’re cool, with the big wooden structures unlike anything we had and, and hopelessly lame, having been neutered for maximum safety. Are we supposed to raise our kids to believe nothing has risk and they will never get hurt? Oh please. While we’re at it, let’s teach them they should never expect to have fun or be responsible either.
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