(Have to chuckle a little about the folks up north belly-aching about their recent heat wave. Though we did have a wonderful break of cooler weather the last week in June, 90 degrees with high humidity is pretty much the norm down in the mid-South it seems.)
With this heat (yesterday it was 93 at 6:45 PM when I ran), there are not many folks out and about, so I had the road to myself. Our development hardly has any children and is mostly older and, in many cases, retired folks. You'll see the occasional folks out walking the dog in good weather, but nobody generally ventures out in the evening heat.
The more upscale development across the street, Grand Oaks Estate, does have a more traditional suburban mix of families with kids and often times, you will see them extend their walks into my neighborhood.
Twice on my oval, I passed the same young couple out teaching a kid (looked to be 4 or 5) to ride a bike (outfitted with training wheels). I don't know if Mom and Dad are big cyclists or just inspired by the Tour De France or whatever, but the outfit and gear this kid had on (in this heat) was way over the top:
- Helmet
- Compression shorts
- A tiny little bicycle jersey (tight fitting - it was brown, so it might have been a replica for the UPS Team)
- Gloves - they looked like soccer goalie gloves.
- Elbow pads
- Knee pads
There are all sorts of literature out there about overprotective parents and the damaging effects they have on their children's emotional health. Recently a study has been performed that establishes a linkage between helicopter parents and neurotic kids. (Note that a direct cause-effect relationship has not yet been proven.) Many of these overprotective parents don't stop once their precious ones go off to camp, or to college, or even into the workplace as "adults".
While overprotective parents didn't just suddenly hatch in this generation, it is not a stretch to think that the two-edged sword of modern technologies is enabling a whole new batch of hovering, well-intentioned, helicopters. Instant messaging, cellular communication, and social networking sites are just tools. They can be used for good - what parent of driving-age children today could ever imagine their child not having a charged cell phone available in case of an emergency. On the other hand, the level of suffocation that some parents can generate using these technologies is pretty disturbing.
The picture to the left is me at the age of 4 or so playing at a park (maybe Lakemont?) and exhibiting my athleticism at an early age. You'll notice that, unlike the little Lance Armstrong that I saw on my run, I am wearing no protective gear whatsoever - the heavy black socks are just for show.
I think it is safe to say that we used to participate in a fair number of activities in an environment that would induce today's control-junky parents into a paralyzing state of terror.
- The standard childhood stuff (tree climbing, bike riding, etc) done without helmets.
- Walking, running, or riding your bike everywhere you went.
- The geometry and physical environment of the alley had untold number of physical hazards. Lots of concrete (with poorly graded and unleveled surfaces). The alley (our Wiffle ball and touch football field) featured brick fences to run into, as well as posts, trees, telephone poles, metal fences all as quaint pieces of the playing field.
- We would often use bricks as bases in Wiffle ball. Think about fielder with ball and base runner digging hard to reach a brick second base and the resulting collision on a close play. Ouch - any wonder that I still have some problems rolling my right ankle from time to time.
- Soft tackle football in the winter on snow and ice in the alley.
- Dodging vehicular traffic in the alley during a ball game.
- For tackle football or "kill-the-guy-with-the-ball" we would often use this gorgeous slice of turf inside the Fairview Cemetery (parallel to Willow Avenue). There wasn't much grass growing in our neighborhood and what was growing was on small private lots. Though this activity to this day still feels slightly macabre, the cemetery provided a nice area for a 2-on-2 game and was a lot closer than Fairview Park. Of course, 2 sides of our cemetery field were enclosed with cast iron fencing and the other two sides with tombstones. Nothing dangerous about that though.
- In the summer, after dark, we would take our skinny little yellow Wiffle ball bats and kill lightning bugs (getting in some additional swings). The glow of the bioluminescence enzyme from multiple kills would build up on the barrel of the bat, which we would use, unwashed, the next morning. I have to believe some collection of unhealthy micro-bacteria was being transferred from bat to ball to hand to mouth.
- Around the 4th of July, roll caps were big fun. We of course had our cap guns, but the real fun was taking a complete roll of caps (with the red paper) and smashing a large brick against the entire roll (doubling down with two or three rolls if you were feeling adventurous, lucky, or particularly stupid). Some of the hardcore kids would painstakingly snip all the paper away, leaving a collection of the explosive tips, which could then be lit. Protective eye and face gear was not used.
