The End of Freedom

        A post by Lisa Ricard Claro brought back a flood of childhood memories. She wrote of the crazy things that kids used to do (and surprisingly more of them weren't maimed or permanently scarred) compared to the overprotected kids of today.

      When I was a kid, the world was a different place. In the summer I ran the neighborhood all day. I crossed railroad tracks and explored creeks and rode on buses to a local outdoor mall where I waded in the fountains and imagined what furniture I would buy when I was grown up. I spent all day there when my friend and I went, and we spent no money except at lunch: a soupcon of French onion soup and a fountain coke. I played in my friends' backyard until the fireflies came, making clover necklaces and playing Red Rover.

     I also went to the pool--by myself. I got there when they opened and left in time so I could get home for dinner.

This is a picture of the Carrollton Pool before it was completely destroyed.
In fact, the whole community was destroyed for the airport expansion...which really never happened.






We went to the neighborhood IGA and when my brother and I were old enough, we were allowed to walk by ourselves (probably a 30-minute trip) to get a loaf of bread or something else that two kids couldn't mangle too badly.

This was our IGA store. There was a little "movie theater" --a tiny booth that sat two or four kids--at the front of the store. In the same strip mall was a Ben Franklin--a magnet for kids with a few nickels to spend on penny candy...



On Halloween this year we had exactly one family come to our door. Sad. I remember running to houses, my pillowcase in hand and when it got so full it slowed me down, I ran home, emptied it, and continued my quest for chocolate. (What were those things wrapped in the orange and the black paper? I always threw them away.)


My childhood home is gone. The whole neighborhood is now a deer park. With the houses gone, the driveways have disappeared and the large expanses of grass have attracted deer.

The craziest thing I did as a kid was wish for a broken arm or leg. The next summer, I ended up falling off the high diving board--I went under the guard rail somehow--and when most of me landed in the pool but part of me landed on the concrete, I ended up with a broken arm. It was not fun. (I ended up with a dozen plastic iced-tea spoons broken off in that cast as I tried to scratch the unreachable itch.)

What is the craziest thing you ever did as a kid?

Oh! To Be a Kid Again!

         I have a student who has been in the hospital for a week; a terrible staph infection has kept his activity level down, but his spirits have remained up.  The doctors and nurses say he will probably have only 6-8 more days of hospitalization. To the parents, that long on a too-short couch is a small inconvenience, as long as their son is fine in the end...

          While sitting around his bed and visiting with the parents (my friend and I went), we had such a rollicking good time, we did not even notice it was almost 9:00 before we scurried out. 

            Everyone in the room was in their 40's and 50's. 

           The dad was constantly massaging his son's stomach as we told tales of our childhood, and bemoaned the ways things were so different then...Playing outside with neighborhood friends (we had no "play dates" then), and having to settle arguments on our own (our parents didn't meddle in that kind of thing)...Polishing or shining shoes...Drinking out of the hose when you got thirsty (it was warm but it was wet), because your mom didn't want you constantly running in and out...

          The other three adults in the room are African American, and they spoke of being admonished to wash extra well, because they were seen by (some) white people as "dirty."  This is something I could not relate to, but I certainly could understand.  (My mother would loved for me to embrace cleanliness; I was a dusty, dirty tomboy.)

            Today, in some neighborhoods there is no evidence that children live there: the parents are too frightened to let them play outside, and so the kids stay in, and instead of playing ball and climbing trees and pretending they're spies, they play video games and learn no give-and-take skills.  They become inactive and unimaginative.

photo by victoriana216

              If you're not a perky, peppy 20-something, what are some of your favorite childhood memories?  What is unique about your upbringing that you would like to share?