re: I think maybe the kids are going to be all right

quote:

---

I think kids that had some of their formative years during COVID have to be stunted socially

---

I walked a not very well-known dead-end neighborhood behind my house nearly every day during the time when schools were not open. One long dead-end street runs North & South back far enough for two side streets to cross it. My street is the long one at the bottom running across this page. Those side streets all end with cul-de-sac. See my drawing below.



The kids on the streets back there were outside playing with the other kids on their street every day. Four or five little girls riding scooters. Three teen boys playing basketball on a portable goal in the street. Four little boys playing foosball under a carport with three dads looking on down a different street. There was one house where grown kids were parked outside their 50-year-old parents' house for dinner every evening. They even kept books in a covered "Swap a book" box that's set up on the top right cul-de-sac. It's in town, but it's a thickly wooded area. You really can't tell it's back there from my street. I saw the same kids playing and the same parents coming and going, even the same old people also walking nearly every day. I would walk on the opposite side of the street and talk with them from across the street. By the 2nd day the adults had all asked me where I lived. When I told them I was taking care of my 87-year-old dad and my 80-year-old mom, two people my age said you know where we are if you need anything. There are quite a few new families back there now, but a lot of the same people too.

If I take every left turn, and walk completely around once, it's 1.8 miles. I usually do 1 & 1/2 times around for a 2.7 mile walk.