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Boomer Childhood
Did we have more fun than today’s kids? Or do we just remember having more fun?
A few days ago I was talking to my “big” sister (she’s in her late fifties; that’s big enough, isn’t it?) and we were remembering our favorite childhood experiences. We both agreed that playing whiffleball in our backyard was an all time favorite. Home plate was someone’s tee shirt and first base was the clothesline. (There was no second or third base—our backyard wasn’t big enough anyway.) All the kids on our block would gather at our house and play well into a summer’s evening, when we could no longer actually see the ball. It didn’t matter. We had fun trying to hit something that wasn’t visible.
Another great time was Halloween. When we were kids, we weren’t afraid of psychopaths trying to lure us into their houses or filling our candy bags with apples embedded with razor blades. In those days we operated under the belief that people were basically good to children. We lived in a small town in New England, and as long as we prowled the streets with other “ghouls,” our parents didn’t worry about where we went. In fact, part of the fun of Halloween night was seeing how many neighborhoods you could canvas in a two hour period. Unless you were a very little kid (under seven or thereabouts), you never walked with your parents. You traveled with your friends. There was great freedom on Halloween. As far as your little ghost legs could carry you determined the amount of loot you would ultimately collect.
In looking back, I’ve noticed one common denominator in all the remembered “fun.” The activities weren’t as important as the friends you did them with. And there were always lots of friends because every street and every neighborhood was teaming with kids. (That’s why it was called the Baby Boom.)
I’m a high school teacher now, and so I’m surrounded by children. Okay, high school kids aren’t exactly children, but they’re not that far removed from childhood. When I talk to my students about their fondest “little kid” memories, most of them stare at me with blank looks. They say they don’t remember further back than last week, or else what they do remember generally concerns some form of electronic game. The joy of exploring a new street with their friends, or just riding up and down the block together on their bikes, doesn’t seem to comprise any of their childhood memories. In fact, “discovery,” in the broadest sense of the word, doesn’t seem to factor into their memories at all.
I’m not saying that every childhood experience should be similar to the Boomer’s. Enough has been written about the insufferably smug attitude of Boomers claiming that their passages through life were somehow more important and memorable than any other generations’. But despite the lack of empirical evidence (how do you quantify “fun”?), I know that I did have more fun than today’s kids.
And I feel sorry for them. I’m pretty sure they’ll never try to hit a whiffleball in the dark.
Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets.
View Donald Gallinger's Official Website Blog: http://www.donaldgallinger.com/dons-blog.html
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Hey Don, I'm not a Baby Boomer, I'm in my young thirties, though I feel you. I grew up in a big American city and we played wall-ball, whiffleball, freedom, freeze tag, and lots of other non-electronic games like that. Of course I had Atari, Nintendo, and my first computer was the Commodore 64, but they were all secondary to neighborhood games and social interaction. Had I been playing an electronic game by myself, I'd turn any one of them off in a heart-beat if someone "knocked-up for me". Prior to the age of 8 I wasn't allowed to cross the big street on either corner of my block. At times I would stand at the corner, looking across the street as if it were an ocean separating two countries. I could see the kids playing freeze tag or something, and I was allowed to 'play' with the neighborhood kids over there, but it wasn't always easy to get there. Sometimes I would stand there just waiting for an adult to walk by so I might ask, "Excuse me, would you cross me?" It was always worth the wait. |
Hi, Don, I'm a bit younger than you are, but your experience is much like mine. I suspect, though, that if video games and such were available when we were younger, it wouldn't have changed our experience too much. I know the parents in our neighborhood (and all of us kids knew and were known by all the parents) were always after the kids to "get out and play". TV was there, but it wasn't the inescapable magnet it would later become. An interesting present day coda. Not long after I moved to my present home here in the Philadelphia suburbs, I was walking down the street and a little kid, maybe four years old, was looking sadly across the street where other kids were playing. He was not old enough to cross the street on his own and, although he didn't know me from Adam's off ox, he said to me, "Can you cross me?" In this day of "Amber Alerts" and Megan's Law and "Stranger Danger", I did the only reasonable thing. I held his hand and walked him across the street, where he caught up with the other kids and they all became airplanes and "flew" along the sidewalk. |
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i hear all about life back then. it sounds really fun if you ask me! i didnt even know what a play station was til after 3rd grade...i used to run around with the kids on my block; playing in the park; rolling down the hill; sidewalk chalk; bike riding; climbing trees. i thought all kids lived like that...but i guess not. oh well; good times. =] |
I feel the same. I'm not a "Boomer" but my childhood certainly seemed more active ........... and not the structured activity of today with all of the after school programs. Somehow I don't think kids today even notice that they are missing out on life in a way. They're seeing it on TV but not really living it. SAD, very sad! |
I loved the video. I remember many of those toys and games. I think life was more innocent then. I remember the 70s more vividly. My sister and I would sleep in the back yard to watch the stars and my mom didn't worry about us being kidnapped cause we lived in the "country". That was fun. Then in the 80s my friends would stop over for weenie roasts and mountain pies and we played the game "spoons". No booze was involved, just fun! Those were the days..... |
Really interesting stuff -- funny! And great visuals....