A Requiem for Summers of the Past: When We Were Kids

Whatever happened to the long days of a care-free Summer? When I (J) was a kid, my brother and I would ride our bikes (no helmets) from 9am to 9pm, often ending up 20 miles from home, on the other side of Los Angeles. If we fell and got a scrape, we washed it off with someone’s hose and kept rollin’. We dipped and dodged, avoiding gangsters and bums. We learned how to protect ourselves. Now, I’d be scared to let a 12 year old walk to the grocery store. In this article, Patrcia Pearson wonders what happened to care-free kids:

“Gone are the golden afternoons of my own childhood, when I left the house without a hat, or sun screen, to noodle about on my bike (without a helmet) and play hide-and-seek in the bushes (without benefit of mosquito repellant or pedophile spray) and invariably stayed out until supper (which consisted of fattening foods).”

“Now, my children cannot exit my home from May through October unless they are dressed in the equivalent of a hazmat suit. “Don’t forget your sun block!” I find myself having to singsong each morning. “Have you removed the life-threatening peanuts (they can cause allergic reactions) from your knapsack? Did you remember your anti-bacterial soap? Your school meds?”"