Before there was Wii...
Submitted by Dick Wanner on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 11:39am.
I did that! I did that when I was a kid! I was born shortly after the invention of movable type (fortunately, because ink-on-paper has been the focus of my life) and the world was a completely different place. It was the middle of the last century, and I roamed the streets, the woods, the fields and the streams around the Lancaster County town of Ephrata with no limits other than being home in time for supper.
None of the kids I know today can do what my peers and I did. Today's kids are monitored, organized and rarely left to their own devices. And with reason. There are people and forces more potent than those we faced swimming in abandoned quarries or going from one end of town to the other by walking through the partially underground storm sewers. Or throwing rocks at rats running around in the town dump. Jumping from the hay mow into loose alfalfa. Catching snakes. Tackle football without equipment. Bikes without helmets. Swimming without lifeguards.
I was a town kid most of the time, and I know farm kids today have fewer restrictions than town kids today, but I think kids everywhere are more watched. I am thankful I had the freedom to be a total kid.
I was reminded of that delicious time in my life by a column in today's Lancaster Intelligencer Journal-New Era written by Larry Alexander who also grew up in Ephrata, but maybe a few years later. He and his peers swung from ropes, jumped from train trestles into huge piles of pea coal (that was on a par with jumping from a hay mow), and other stuff you just can't do today. Thanks, Larry, for the trip back. His column, if you're interested, is here:
Conservation districts across Pennsylvania are facing hard times with budget cuts causing program reductions, staff cuts and fewer farm visits. The Berks County, Pennsylvania, district faced the worst-case scenario when the county commissioners stripped nearly all their support from the current budget. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres wrote about the situation in our current edition. His story is here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2158
Aren't you glad you work in a barn? http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=527620
