Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Mom, Can We Go Play?
by Jo Smith
The heat is the main topic in most conversations here in the heart of Oklahoma. When I left work today at about 5pm the big electronic sign between the street and the runway tells me it is 109 degrees and the sun is still beaming strong with no sign of lowering in the sky.
I've lived here all my life (don't ask) and when I was a little girl (yes Virginia I was young and little once) we had many days like this and no refrigrated air conditioning. So it was not a horrible thing to go outside, it was cooler if you had a shade tree to play under. We sat on the grass and played with the lady bugs and watched the crickets trying to see them rub their legs together to make their strange noise.
I had a big shaded painted concret porch to play on that covered the entire front of the house. We played jacks for hours at a time and loved every minute of it. We could lay in the sun and no one seemed to complain of skin cancer. We didn't have to smear sun screen all over us, maybe we were protected by the layer of dirt we had aquired playing outside since early morning to dinner time. We wore shorts and sleeveless tops and either strap sandles or barefoot.
We went to the pyrimids in Egypt on calmels, we swung through the trees with Tarzan and Boy, we played cowboys and indians and the cowboys always won, we flew airplanes with our arms streached as far as we could get them, we drove cars using anything round for a stiring wheel, we were the teacher with our friends as the students, we were the Mother of the house with friends for daddy and children, their was no end to what we came up with because ??????? we did it in our minds and created all the things we needed to become anything we wanted in our imagination.
My wish today is tomorrow kids find this magic they possess and unleash it as we did when I was little.
Wish I had a Starbucks Iced Mocha but guess I'll settle for a glass of water.
Have a good tomorrow and stay cool, at least under the colar.
(Please excuse any misspelled words, maybe someday I'll learn to use this spellcheck)
The heat is the main topic in most conversations here in the heart of Oklahoma. When I left work today at about 5pm the big electronic sign between the street and the runway tells me it is 109 degrees and the sun is still beaming strong with no sign of lowering in the sky.
I've lived here all my life (don't ask) and when I was a little girl (yes Virginia I was young and little once) we had many days like this and no refrigrated air conditioning. So it was not a horrible thing to go outside, it was cooler if you had a shade tree to play under. We sat on the grass and played with the lady bugs and watched the crickets trying to see them rub their legs together to make their strange noise.
I had a big shaded painted concret porch to play on that covered the entire front of the house. We played jacks for hours at a time and loved every minute of it. We could lay in the sun and no one seemed to complain of skin cancer. We didn't have to smear sun screen all over us, maybe we were protected by the layer of dirt we had aquired playing outside since early morning to dinner time. We wore shorts and sleeveless tops and either strap sandles or barefoot.
We went to the pyrimids in Egypt on calmels, we swung through the trees with Tarzan and Boy, we played cowboys and indians and the cowboys always won, we flew airplanes with our arms streached as far as we could get them, we drove cars using anything round for a stiring wheel, we were the teacher with our friends as the students, we were the Mother of the house with friends for daddy and children, their was no end to what we came up with because ??????? we did it in our minds and created all the things we needed to become anything we wanted in our imagination.
My wish today is tomorrow kids find this magic they possess and unleash it as we did when I was little.
Wish I had a Starbucks Iced Mocha but guess I'll settle for a glass of water.
Have a good tomorrow and stay cool, at least under the colar.
(Please excuse any misspelled words, maybe someday I'll learn to use this spellcheck)
Comments:
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I'm there with you, Jo. That's the same way I grew up. We had fun doing this! And I think we turned out okay.
Hopefully, I instill this same type of imagination and creativity into my school students, even though it's not an official objective. Creative thinkers are problem-solvers.
Hopefully, I instill this same type of imagination and creativity into my school students, even though it's not an official objective. Creative thinkers are problem-solvers.
I spent a lot of time outside myself and I don't remember kids complaining of the heat.
Now, as a mom, I don't let my son stay outside too long when it's this hot. (g)
Now, as a mom, I don't let my son stay outside too long when it's this hot. (g)
I'm like Rinda. I can remember being outside all day as a kid. We never complained of the heat. Heat??? What heat?
Now my kids on the other hand... they can play outside for 30 minutes at a time. Then come in to cool off. Are we setting our kids up for failure when they get older? You know the planet is going to be hotter when they get older...
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Now my kids on the other hand... they can play outside for 30 minutes at a time. Then come in to cool off. Are we setting our kids up for failure when they get older? You know the planet is going to be hotter when they get older...
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