Surviving Childhood (Without Even Trying)
Posted
May 22, 2008 at
9:40 am by
Kymberly
Like many of you, I came of age during the last, gasping heyday of American childhood. This was before youth was hermetically sealed for your protection and the fun safely removed from every last little thing.
Granted, I also came of age during a time when it would seem in retrospect that our parents were actively trying to kill us and make it look like an accident.
If we can get past the monumental “what were they thinking?” safety issues such as the legions of us who grew up riding around in vehicles by standing up on the back seat, sitting in our mother’s laps, or in some cases, lying prone across the rear cargo area of the family station wagon, we must still address the variety of injuries obtained during our leisure time.
That is when we were, presumably, supposed to be building lasting memories rather than lasting scars. Ask any old-timer of any age over 30 about a slight limp, permanent lump, or interesting scar, however, and you are likely to set them off on a trip (or fall) down memory lane.
“Hey, tough scar, old football injury eh?” you might ask. “Nah, merry-go-round, 1974″ is the likely reply.
Many women have spent decades carefully powdering and concealing the evidential scar of a swing set “duck under” gone awry or the moment when they almost made good on their mother’s promise: “You’ll poke your eye out.”
Decades before shredded rubber “play surfaces” and fully enclosed tunnel slides would become the demanded norm for our own offspring, we ran amuck on asphalt playgrounds or grass flecked mud which was packed to the forgiving consistency of, oh say - cement.
In retrospect we must wonder if it really had to take great advances in modern science and for playground designers to come to the remarkable conclusion that unforgiving hard paved surfaces were not, perhaps, the best choice to cushion the inevitable falls of airborne children.
Nonetheless, upon these brutally unforgiving surfaces we enjoyed fun filled games like tether ball: essentially a chance to stand elbow to elbow with schoolmates and get whomped in the head by an airborne ball at high speeds until - lookee here - it would come around from the other side and hit you again!
We willingly rode merry-go-rounds where, with the right amount of centrifugal force, we could be flung clear from the platform and go skidding, somewhat less merrily, across the asphalt or gravel.
Check around and you’ll find that many of your peers carry minuscule, pebbled fragments of childhood playgrounds permanently embedded under their flesh to this day.
Legions of us hung upside down from monkey bars shrieking “Look Ma!! No hands!” Often followed by “Look ma! No consciousness!”
Undaunted by mild concussions, we braved swing chains that pinched, teeter-totters that slammed us to the ground from dizzying heights, and dodge ball - the latter later outlawed in 46 states. (All because some ninny decided that teaching children to throw balls at other children while the victims scurried for cover like startled chickens was a bad idea. Some people can suck the fun out of everything).
Discussing this topic with a group of my fellow battle scarred playground survivors, it occurred to me why so often the gawkiest, most non-athletic students, those that hung back from playground fun - the social wallflowers so to speak, often grow up to be the movers and shakers of the future (i.e. The Bill Gates effect).
Undoubtedly, they’re the only ones with any strength left.
Tags: 1970s, baby-boomers, Childhood, dodge-ball, Family, merry-go-rounds, protection, safety |
5 Responses to “Surviving Childhood (Without Even Trying)”
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1. Jessica said:
May 23, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
Damn straight! Bring back dodgeball — that’s what prepares you for life. Life is cruel. Life is about risks. As long as it doesn’t kill you or break your head wide open, then let live and let live. (It may sound like I’m being facetious — the scary part?…I’m not!)
Kids definitely need to be toughened up a bit.
The next generation of kids aren’t even gonna be able to kill a spider.
2. Grandma frm Ks. said:
May 23, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
Jessica,theres a saying “what don’t kill you, will make you stronger”. gosh I remember monkey bars, dodge ball, and hard play grounds, I also remember we played out side and loved it, I think to day kids have to many little toys that keep their attention indoors, things that become babysitters, and very little family time. They become lazy T.V./ computer kids and forget fresh air, Do you remember Marbles? on the street corner under the street light, yeah I ‘m as old as Moses.
3. Kennedy said:
May 23, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
We used to play hide-n-seek, and tag at night. It was so much fun. Now I wouldn’t even think of letting my own kids do it. It’s just not safe.
4. Rita said:
May 24, 2008 @ 8:10 pm
[quote comment="165308"]Damn straight! Bring back dodgeball — that’s what prepares you for life. Life is cruel. Life is about risks. As long as it doesn’t kill you or break your head wide open, then let live and let live. (It may sound like I’m being facetious — the scary part?…I’m not!)
Kids definitely need to be toughened up a bit.
The next generation of kids aren’t even gonna be able to kill a spider.[/quote]
My junior high had an alternate name for dodgeball–they called it KILL! And, that really was the object of the game. I used to think that dodgeball was a sadistic game, invented by people who hated kids. But, then my own children played it at tae kwon do, you know, a bunch of second and third degree black belts throwing those stinging red balls at each other and the kids who happened to be around them, and it was FUN. I realized that it wasn’t the game that was awful, it was the group that was playing the game. Kind of how like camping could be cool with a mixed group of responsible people of different ages, but if it’s a bunch of english kids alone, then the one with the unfortunate name of “Piggy” is gonna bite the dust.
Kids being given license to hurt the weak with biting rubber balls, flung with full force, is NOT a bright idea. Unless you hate kids.
I may very well have learned something about human nature and my own ability to cope with big red welts on my body. It certainly taught me the art of flinching and how to strategize (sacrifice yourself at the start and get it over with, then spend the rest of gym class leaning against the wall–hey, THAT’S a good workout!), but I truly wonder what the kids who were good at dodge ball learn? That you can solve all your problems by knocking a nerdy kid to pieces with a ball? Life isn’t cruel to those kids. They get frustrated and they pummel someone else to get it out. Is that a healthy lesson? See, these things are bad for the kids on both sides.
But, as far as kids today being too wussy to kill a spider? I don’t see particularly wussy kids around me. I don’t really think that dodgeball or unsafe playground equipment is going to make kids better able to cope with real life struggles.
But…it was a funny essay. I’m surprised that any of us survived, really. I have small bits of gravel embedded in my knee, and a scar on my forehead from my Lutheran school playground. And, my little sister used to love to stand up on the front seat of the car whenever we drove anywhere. It was a different world.
5. Kennedy said:
May 25, 2008 @ 10:54 am
My kids do play dodgeball. All the neighbor kids join in. They love it!