re: What experiences from your past would you bring back for today's kids if you could?

My neighbor was the same age as me and our front yards connected perfectly with no fences. So we could make a make shift field to play football, baseball, soccer, etc. We also each had our own basketball goals, so we'd play some at my house and some at theirs. All of our friends in the neighborhood were at our houses every day playing some type of sport. When we were thirsty, we drank out of our water hoses. When the street lights came on, it was time to go inside.

Not having the internet or social media would be an excellent start.

Asking for a machete so you could cut trails through the woods to ride bikes.

Pickup games in the neighborhood.

Sunday Dinners at MawMaws house.

BB gun wars.

Getting off the bus, grabbing a snack, then heading out to get on bikes and meet up with my buddies to hit the woods, go fishing, build forts, hunt, play army, etc and not coming back till dark. No possible way for anyone to know where you were or get in touch with you anywhere. Pretty powerful stuff for a little kid.

I suspect that's why kids these days are not becoming mature adults till much later. They never got to take care of themselves. Zero responsibility. No failures to overcome. I'm Gen X. I basically raised myself and my brother from the age of 14. Show me a 14 year old these days where that turns out ok. They're out there, but they're few and far between in the USA these days.

Royal Rumble on the trampoline. How we didn't get seriously injured is beyond me since there were no nets back then.

Dang fire ants! (at least where I live, bye bye rabbits)

Working shake machines at McDonald's.

Large chicken fingers at Cane's.

Crawfish prices staying low.

quote:

---

For me it would be massive pick-up offseason baseball games at the baseball fields.

---

When I was a kid we would play baseball and football in the big open areas of the Jackson Barracks and basketball at local school playgrounds when school was out.

The Jackson Barracks have been off limits for a good while now, but any decent open field would suffice.

Also, my cousins and I would camp along the batture of the Mississippi River on weekends and fish for our food to go with a few things brought from home. Build a fire, wrap big potatoes in foil and bury them in the sand under the coals and in about 1 1/2 hours, baked potato.

To say we weren't watched over like hawks by our parents is an understatement and I think that really helped us kids to grow up with different values than today's "Helicopter Kids".

LAN parties and being out riding bikes around the neighborhood till the street lights came on