LIGHTS ON! SEE YA' TOMORROW!
IYKYK - When a Facebook post from the “Good Old Days” appeared on my computer screen, I agreed with the sentiment, “I'm so old, I remember when adults would hang out around the table, talk, and laugh while the kids all ran around and played outside.”
The first response was so spot on. It read, “Until the street lights came on.” The replies categorically showed, “The good old days before cell phones and the internet.” Next in the list of critiques showed that now, “Everyone is in a rush.”
What the responders didn’t pick up on rests on the effects of the advent of air conditioning and being “trapped” indoors with the windows and doors sealed shut. If you’ve been following my blog posts, air conditioning due to global warming was a major factor in our decision to add central air to our home in 2025.
Not being trapped indoors with central air could be why our children played outside regularly, as we did. There was no temptation to rush in for the air conditioning, although color TV, PBS, and video games were tempting distractions in their generation.
There are pluses and minuses to everything. I know it delights us that our grandchildren enjoy being at the playground and have seen many different play areas, and made fast friends with others on the grounds in various cities and states.
Get out there and explore with your children and grandchildren. As our son Judd used to say as a toddler when we took him to playgrounds, “I want to test my skills.”
Ain’t it the truth, is all I could say when I saw a Facebook posting reminding me of my mother frantically shouting “Sharon,” from the window of the second-floor apartment building we lived in until I was 11, beckoning me to come in from playing, and another Facebook posting showing “Kids during a snow day in 2025,” versus “1975.” Some of my fondest memories were made on snow days outdoors in the biting air. Maybe they weren’t always as much fun as building snowmen, but they surely had a more lasting impression than a game played on a cell phone.
Society will never revert to the days when we stayed outside playing until the streetlights came on, or played in the snow, making snowmen and having playful snowball “fights,” or even making money shoveling for neighbors; however, we can surely all use quality time exploring, exercising, and engaging in some in-person socializing.
Couldn’t resist taking this post off Facebook
Rina, Sharon, and Judd build a snowman
While babysitting, Grandma took Solly out to build her first snowman at our house in South Orange, New Jersey
The joy continues as Dizzy and Solly build a snowman at their house in Shaker Heights, Ohio