Go Out and Play: A Story about Growing Up in America

It's difficult to get kids to play outside these days. They seem to enjoy more being inside where they can play fast paced video games or watch television shows. Even when we're successful in getting them out the door, they complain that none of their friends are outside, which is because their friends are inside watching television or playing video games. Unfortunately, they're missing out on a great part of being a kid.

Anyone around my age or older remembers that, when we were young, there weren't any video games and television was for rainy days. And, even then, there was nothing on daytime TV for kids to watch anyway. Instead we played outside all day nearly everyday. We knew all the kids in the neighborhood and we nearly always found someone willing to play.

In my 1970s Indiana neighborhood, which included my Orchard Lane home and the surrounding area, there seemed never to be a time when we could find nothing to do. We played games such as "Home Run Derby" in the cul-de-sac between Kevin Paul and Carol Rugg's houses, "Slips" in the inner circle behind Jeff and Jay Kyle's house, football at Dave Ellis' house (in spite of the tree in the middle of the playing field), basketball behind Mark and Julie Conkle's house and even "Spoons" at Jo Anne Haines' house. But, our favorite thing was to swim in Mr. Collier's pool.

Mel Collier lived in a nice yellow ranch within sight of my house. He made his swimming pool available to the neighborhood kids by raising a blue "welcome" flag on his back yard flag pole. On hot days we would run covert bike patrols checking for the flag. The missions had to be clandestine because we didn't want Mr. Collier to see us hovering around his property. When it was my turn to check for the flag, I would make it appear that I was visiting one of the homes on the other side of Mr. Collier's house (the Kaiser's, Young's or Crawford's). Once one of us noticed that the flag was up, word spread quickly throughout the neighborhood and soon all the kids were there having a great time.

Another of our favorite activities was racing our bikes. Part of our street was a circle which lent itself well to racing. We would race our BMX bikes and ten-speeds around the circle as fast as we could, sometimes crashing in the corners (my apologies to the late Jeff "June Bug" Davis). One day Jeff Kyle was proudly showing us his new Schwinn Apple Krate, which came with a stick shift and speedometer. My brother, Stacy, asked to ride the bike and was soon speeding around the circle as fast as he could, all the while looking straight down at the speedometer. Unfortunately, he didn't see the Volkswagen Squareback parked directly in front of him. The crash left a dent in the car and damaged the brand new bike as well. I think Stacy's knees still bother him as a result. Jeff was more than a little upset with Stacy over the incident, although I think he's over it now.

Schwinn Apple Krate

Of course, there are many, many other memories, including the time Dave Ellis was bitten by Carol Rugg's Afghan Hound; Rashid, after saying we shouldn't be afraid of him; my failed attempt at singing in Stacy and Denny Scher's rock band; and the time I crashed my car nearly into the Crawford's house (see They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To (and it's a good thing). Many of the kids in our neighborhood are still my friends today. We don't see each other often but we all share the grand memories that our own kids simply will not have. Their loss.