Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for August 15, 2018

I suppose that if you had your phone you could google it. Not sure you’d understand the results, though.

When I was their age, I played sports with my friends. Part of their problem is that the other kids are still playing on their electronic devices.

Let’s see. Dug for buried treasure. Built tree forts. Made projectile weapons out of TV antenna, steel coathangers and bike inner tubes, played “war” (like video games but healthy exercise), seminars on girls’ anatomy conducted by a guy who had sisters, conducted search missions to make great discoveries like which dads kept beer in the garage, collected drink bottles for the deposits (ten bought you two nickel cherry Cokes), explored the aerodynamic limits of Schwinn bicycles, anything you can do with a BB gun, gathered and ate mulberries (tried to think of an explanation for the stains that wouldn’t enrage mom), rode bikes down the beach popping stranded man-o-wars, dropped firecrackers down the chain link fence posts (well of course you always kept enough fire crackers), spent half a day debating how to use the cherry bomb or M-80 donated by someone’s big brother, explored crawl spaces under houses, installed playing cards on bicycles with clothes pins to make them into “motorcycles”,… the list is endless.

They can’t be at a public park, can they? What one would allow what looks to be a metal slide that big to still be in use?

Swing on the swings, play kick ball, football, go skating, go to the park and play games with our friends, to the library, swimming, and the list went on

Went swimming in the Susquehanna River, tubing on the “Swattie” (Swatara Crick (creek), swam at the local pond, went fishing, had mud battles at the river, bike riding, homemade forts, bike ramps, sledding in and ice skating in the winter. Fishing, frog hunted, tree forts, etc. Great times!

How about all the time spent thinking up things that my parents hadn’t bothered to tell me not to do, and doing them until my parents caught on – repeat as long as I was bored. “Don’t sit around the house reading!” Climbed a tree with my book. “No taking the boat out alone!” Got something that floated and paddled around the bay. “Stay away from the neighbors across the woods, they don’t like kids!” Got lost wandering the woods in every other direction. “Don’t go hunting snakes!” Hunted every other critter around (didn’t catch much).

How did I survive? I don’t know, but I definitely LIVED.

Those are absolutely the BEST stories!!!!!!!!

We built a wrestling ring in the yard and actually tried doing all of the holds and stunts they did on TV and at the matches we seen in person. Wonder we didn’t end up in the hospital. Even got into a BB gun fight and got the lens shot out on one side. Made our own gunpowder and made some small bombs and a rocket. Played Monopoly, with extra money for each. Camped out at night.

Ironically, we’re all reading this online.