> Nothing is more responsible for the good old
> days than a bad memory.

Or looking around at the way things really are...

I guess this may date me somewhat but what follows here is something that transpired in the mid 50's, the mid 70's, and then in the mid 90's.

In the mid 50's we played...raised in the country and with not many homes around, the neighbourhood yielded a grand total of 10 kids (6 boys and 4 girls - ages from 6-13). After doing our chores we played....we invented our games. We played innocent games - baseball, football, 21, soccer, tag, hide and seek, in the winter hockey and skating in backyard rinks. Also were the building of the treehouses, climbing trees, playing in the sand, bike riding, swimming, and on special nights the bonfires with the hotdogs and marshmallows...life was innocent and good.

Then I grew up! A family came along.

In the mid seventies I had 2 boys aged 8 and 5....the neighborhood boys would come to the door to get my two boys. What they hollered through the screen were things such as get your gloves we're playing ball, or get your toys were building a city - yes there was skating but in an arena, swimmming but in a pool...not quite the same but still pretty innocent and still kids using a lot of imagination to amuse themselves.

And then we hit the mid 90's....and I was into a second family with 2 girls aged 7 and 5. Life really hadn't seemed that much different....it had evolved slowly and I didn't realize the changes until one summer evening the lights went on....

....the neighbour kids came to the door and yelled through the screen: "Get your weapons and let's go!"

No get your bikes, or bring out your gloves, or let's go swimming, or lets play tag...just...

"Get your weapons and let's go!"

And all I could do was shake my head and wonder where in Heavens name society is really headed to.

Cornell