you play sports?” Meant, “Hey kid, do you play sports? Like right now this minute!” Now it means do you have Madden Football 06? Or MLB we had our own outfield fence sections we carried with us wherever we were going to play. We learned about hitting to the opposite field by closing fields because of either a shortage of players or an abundance of dog poop. Football was three complete passes for a first down, back in Chicago Hockey meant climbing through a hole in the fence on a local golf course we would play all the shortened winter day long in a perfectly shaped water hazard hockey rink at about half the scale.

We would use Coke cans packed with ice to mark the goal

It would be unfair to say I was a bad kid growing up not inaccurate just unfair. I was a product of my times I only set the house on fire just that one time and even though I was only five my parents never let me forget it. Now a days in our enlightened sensitive universe it would have been them up against the wall explaining to the police and fire department why they left a cigarette lighter on the coffee table with a five year old in the house?

Just like the time I wrecked my fathers car now before you judge me too harshly remember, there are literally millions of teenagers who have wrecked their father’s car. I shouldn’t be graded too harshly just because I avoided the rush of teenage years and wrecked the car at age six. I was an early bloomer I tell you that’s all there is to it. Today of course the concern would have been if I had been traumatized by the experience. I will add this note for any archeological historian; my Father at that time had the greatest interest in the level of my trauma and was insistent that I received the fullest in educational opportunities that the experience could provide me with, but my Mother intervened and her opinion prevailed and I remained ignorant of it.

That’s my point entirely; with the rise of video games Children have no anchor in reality. What are they going to do when they reach my age? Talk about the time they got high score in Vice City and shot the head pimp? When I got a little older we moved to Dallas to a new subdivision on the very edge of civilization. The other boys and myself we whiled away the summer hours taunting the bull in the cow pasture. Or we would go to the new home construction site and borrow wood for tree forts. We would begin construction in a tree in a vacant lot and a whole gang of us would construct a multileveled colossus. Adult’s heaped praise on us for our courage and our aptitude in such high level construction work why even the policeman who ordered us out said so.

But today’s children overburdened with parental concern for their well being have no such memories of childhood, the joy of outrageousness. Of new experiences of exploration and excitement here I was ten years old and I’d been in house fires auto accidents chased by bulls evicted by the police why I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning. But today’s melancholy children aren’t even allowed to ride their bicycles out of sight until they are almost old enough to drive. They must live vicariously through fictional electronic characters their only connection to excitement is through a joystick. To this generation whoops means hit the reset button while in my youth whoops might mean run for it!

When I was growing up the question, “Do you play sports?” Meant, “Hey kid, do you play sports? Like right now this minute!” Now it means do you have Madden Football 06? Or MLB we had our own outfield fence sections we carried with us wherever we were going to play. We learned about hitting to the opposite field by closing fields because of either a shortage of players or an abundance of dog poop. Football was three complete passes for a first down, back in Chicago Hockey meant climbing through a hole in the fence on a local golf course we would play all the shortened winter day long in a perfectly shaped water hazard hockey rink at about half the scale.

We would use Coke cans packed with ice to mark the goal

he rush of teenage years and wrecked the car at age six. I was an early bloomer I tell you that’s all there is to it. Today of course the concern would have been if I had been traumatized by the experience. I will add this note for any archeological historian; my Father at that time had the greatest interest in the level of my trauma and was insistent that I received the fullest in educational opportunities that the experience could provide me with, but my Mother intervened and her opinion prevailed and I remained ignorant of it.

That’s my point entirely; with the rise of video games Children have no anchor in reality. What are they going to do when they reach my age? Talk about the time they got high score in Vice City and shot the head pimp? When I got a little older we moved to Dallas to a new subdivision on the very edge of civilization. The other boys and myself we whiled away the summer hours taunting the bull in the cow pasture. Or we would go to the new home construction site and borrow wood for tree forts. We would begin construction in a tree in a vacant lot and a whole gang of us would construct a multileveled colossus. Adult’s heaped praise on us for our courage and our aptitude in such high level construction work why even the policeman who ordered us out said so.

But today’s children overburdened with parental concern for their well being have no such memories of childhood, the joy of outrageousness. Of new experiences of exploration and excitement here I was ten years old and I’d been in house fires auto accidents chased by bulls evicted by the police why I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning. But today’s melancholy children aren’t even allowed to ride their bicycles out of sight until they are almost old enough to drive. They must live vicariously through fictional electronic characters their only connection to excitement is through a joystick. To this generation whoops means hit the reset button while in my youth whoops might mean run for it!

When I was growing up the question, “Do you play sports?” Meant, “Hey kid, do you play sports? Like right now this minute!” Now it means do you have Madden Football 06? Or MLB we had our own outfield fence sections we carried with us wherever we were going to play. We learned about hitting to the opposite field by closing fields because of either a shortage of players or an abundance of dog poop. Football was three complete passes for a first down, back in Chicago Hockey meant climbing through a hole in the fence on a local golf course we would play all the shortened winter day long in a perfectly shaped water hazard hockey rink at about half the scale.

We would use Coke cans packed with ice to mark the goal

alk about the time they got high score in Vice City and shot the head pimp? When I got a little older we moved to Dallas to a new subdivision on the very edge of civilization. The other boys and myself we whiled away the summer hours taunting the bull in the cow pasture. Or we would go to the new home construction site and borrow wood for tree forts. We would begin construction in a tree in a vacant lot and a whole gang of us would construct a multileveled colossus. Adult’s heaped praise on us for our courage and our aptitude in such high level construction work why even the policeman who ordered us out said so.

But today’s children overburdened with parental concern for their well being have no such memories of childhood, the joy of outrageousness. Of new experiences of exploration and excitement here I was ten years old and I’d been in house fires auto accidents chased by bulls evicted by the police why I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning. But today’s melancholy children aren’t even allowed to ride their bicycles out of sight until they are almost old enough to drive. They must live vicariously through fictional electronic characters their only connection to excitement is through a joystick. To this generation whoops means hit the reset button while in my youth whoops might mean run for it!

When I was growing up the question, “Do you play sports?” Meant, “Hey kid, do you play sports? Like right now this minute!” Now it means do you have Madden Football 06? Or MLB we had our own outfield fence sections we carried with us wherever we were going to play. We learned about hitting to the opposite field by closing fields because of either a shortage of players or an abundance of dog poop. Football was three complete passes for a first down, back in Chicago Hockey meant climbing through a hole in the fence on a local golf course we would play all the shortened winter day long in a perfectly shaped water hazard hockey rink at about half the scale.

We would use Coke cans packed with ice to mark the goal

their well being have no such memories of childhood, the joy of outrageousness. Of new experiences of exploration and excitement here I was ten years old and I’d been in house fires auto accidents chased by bulls evicted by the police why I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning. But today’s melancholy children aren’t even allowed to ride their bicycles out of sight until they are almost old enough to drive. They must live vicariously through fictional electronic characters their only connection to excitement is through a joystick. To this generation whoops means hit the reset button while in my youth whoops might mean run for it!

When I was growing up the question, “Do you play sports?” Meant, “Hey kid, do you play sports? Like right now this minute!” Now it means do you have Madden Football 06? Or MLB we had our own outfield fence sections we carried with us wherever we were going to play. We learned about hitting to the opposite field by closing fields because of either a shortage of players or an abundance of dog poop. Football was three complete passes for a first down, back in Chicago Hockey meant climbing through a hole in the fence on a local golf course we would play all the shortened winter day long in a perfectly shaped water hazard hockey rink at about half the scale.

We would use Coke cans packed with ice to mark the goal

you play sports?” Meant, “Hey kid, do you play sports? Like right now this minute!” Now it means do you have Madden Football 06? Or MLB we had our own outfield fence sections we carried with us wherever we were going to play. We learned about hitting to the opposite field by closing fields because of either a shortage of players or an abundance of dog poop. Football was three complete passes for a first down, back in Chicago Hockey meant climbing through a hole in the fence on a local golf course we would play all the shortened winter day long in a perfectly shaped water hazard hockey rink at about half the scale.

We would use Coke cans packed with ice to mark the goals and would begin heavily overdressed dressed in hats and coats with scarves on. Then as we played slowly the jackets would come off then scarves then hats finely we would end up in blue jeans tee shirts and gloves playing in the twenty-degree weather. I don’t remember winning or losing there were no awards or all stars just kids having a hell of a good time just being kids. Our Mothers would have screamed at our half naked condition our fathers would have just smiled but we all lived to adulthood. No X box or play station could replace that or even come close to imitating it, we weren’t just playing hockey we were learning about getting along in life.

In the summer our hockey arena became a revenue source with mask and swim fins at dawn we dove for golf balls. Funny how I remember the cold of those June mornings in that pond better than I remember the January cold. Retrieval was only half the job before we could take them to the pro shop and cash in, our booty had to be carefully dried each ball as well as the bucket. For some reason the Country Club had gotten the idea that those where their golf balls at the bottom of that pond. They would cock an eye of suspicion at us and wanted our home addresses ostensibly for the voucher if the balls were at all damp or had water in the bottom of the bucket. What video game could teach you about both larceny motive and reading people?

We would take our cash and ride our bicycles twenty miles to Indiana where the forbidden fruit of childhood was sold, Fireworks! So I would stick my head in the house and ask, “Mom can I ride my bike out of state to buy fireworks?” Not! We had to hurry so as not to interfere with mealtime. We crossed the border and headed straight to Injun Joe’s fireworks they had the best prices and asked the least questions. Spending all our money in less than twenty minutes out of state we would begin the return trip laden with childhood gold.

To some of you I’m sure we looked like hellions, that view was not considered far fetched at the time, but we were eleven and twelve year old kids and as I think about it now I shake my head and marvel at our own audaciousness and our ambition. To conceive plan prepare and carry out the operation to ride our bicycles out of state forty miles round trip. Children today won’t get up and look for the remote control they will sit on the couch and say, “Mom I’m bored.”

A mistake I only made once, by the time I had finished all the chores given to me I made a vow that I would never ever claim to have even heard of the word boredom. Because we didn’t have video games we had to proactively entertain ourselves and not sit back passively waiting to be entertained. We had to work