I mean we're the people who tamed the frontier -- ok, we shoved our native people onto reservations and killed all the buffalo. So we didn't do a good job of it, but stay with me for a moment.
The point is, we weren't wusses. We did stuff. Some of it was kinda dumb and much of it was probably not a good idea, but we did stuff. We threw out the Brits. Twice, actually. Then we kissed and made up and helped them win two world wars. We crossed the Atlantic in a rickety airplane. We got to the moon. Damn. We were good.
Now, it's like, we can't do anything remotely dangerous.
When I was a kid, one of the best rides at Bertrand's Island was the spaceships. See above. They spun around this tower leaning far out over Lake Hopatcong. They were amazing. We just sat there. We didn't have seat belts, let along these locking thingys you see on rides now. I don't have a picture, but we also rode the Whip, which sent us bouncing off wooden walls in what was basically a large barrel. Great. Also no seat belts.
I don't remember kids getting hurt any more than I remember kids getting hurt on playgrounds with gravel under the swings, not rubber.
I do remember kids having imaginations.
I'm not usually one of those who laments the loss of "the good old days." "The good old days" were mostly good for white men (see Mad Men, season 1), but I do lament the days of taking chances. I never wanted to see my kids get hurt, but kids get hurt. They fall down, they get skinned knees (everybody I knew as a kid has scars on their knees), they get hurt in other ways -- pets die, friends move away. Sheltering kids doesn't teach them to be grown-ups.
Kids need to explore, get dirty, take chances. That's how you grow up.
A couple of summers ago, I was at my cousin's daughter's house. Her daughter was in a tree. Somebody asked if that was the tree she fell out of a couple of days before. She said, "yes, now I know how not to fall out of it."
She's miles ahead of many kids her age.
No comments:
Post a Comment