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ezy

When I was younger, so much younger than today

by ezy at 09:43 AM on August 25, 2004

When I was a youngster I lived in a neighborhood with a group of kids that happened to all be around the same age. We used to play whatever sport was in season which, to us, meant football and baseball. Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring we were out playing until dark or sometimes after. The after dark times would usually be broken up by one Mother or another shrieking at the top of her lungs for her child to get home or face the God of all punishments, grounding. All of us, as a collective, would have taken a whipping rather than the drawn out agony of being grounded. What’s my point? Well, I’m not too sure yet but I think it hinges on how different kids are today.

When visiting my nephews, I notice a lack of outdoor activities until my sister kicks the kids outside to play. Hell, you used to have to threaten us with punishment to get us to come inside. The X-Box, Playstation, and the like have taken over our youth. We had Pong, Atari and such but those were games to be played when the weather didn’t permit outdoor activities. Now, I watch my nephews wasting perfectly good days sitting in front of a TV playing video games. Have I become an old fart? Maybe, but it just doesn’t seem right in some way. It could be the generation gap but the things I did as a kid and the things my Father did as a kid aren’t that different. Sure he had to milk cows, herd chickens, and walk to school uphill both ways before he could go out and play but the activities, once gotten to, weren’t much different than the ones my friends and I enjoyed. Tennis ball, whiffle ball, (both variations of baseball minus broken windows), baseball, football, smear the queer, hide and seek, war, kick the can were all activities my Dad and I both played during our youth. If it doesn’t involve a controller, game system and a TV most kids today aren’t sure what to do with it.

I have also noticed another thing. My Dad has coached little league baseball since I started playing, twenty six years all told. My coach quit one day so I asked my Dad to coach the team and he accepted. Games, when I played, were fiercely competitive and we took things very seriously. There were bragging rites at school and which girls were going to go out with the star players to consider. I went to help my Dad coach a couple of times this past summer and couldn’t have been more disappointed. It seemed to me that there were, maybe, two kids who really wanted to be there and play but the rest could’ve cared less. They were more concerned whether their swings looked like Derek Jeter’s, on one video game or another, than whether they even made contact with the ball in reality. I even caught one kid, while playing the infield, practicing that Derek Jeter swing during a game. Has youth baseball fallen to this level of mediocrity during the years between my youth and the present? It seems so. And what’s up with the lack of chatter during the opposing team’s at bat? Those kids hardly made a sound during opposing at bats. I remember, when I played, that opposing batters would have trouble hearing their coaches over our chatter. I guess I’ll just have to face it. I have become an old, outdated relic. I can still break-dance and pull off a mean worm though so there, take that you young bastards.

comments (11)

I have thought a lot about this topic. And my thinking comes from the perspective of someone who had to be limited in my Tetris consumption and TV consumption...

I think it is a pretty flat childhood when you are immersed in video games. When I remember Tetris, it is hours & hours of semi-passive monotony. When I remember playing in the yard, running around with my friends, doing gymnastics, playing softball... that's the stuff that actually has some meat to the memory.

I totally lacked the competitive spirit in softball (maybe because I sucked), but I definitely had fun, and was very attached to that fun. I think it's the flat memories that bother me; it seems like you are losing some of the richness of your life if you are just sitting through being a kid...

But I feel that way about adulthood and TV too. Not to be on a soapbox; I watch TV (the Simpsons & that 70s show).

by Linz at August 25, 2004 1:48 PM


Smear the queer? Glad I never played that one... I'd probably be smeared from Iowa to Florida.

by snaggle at August 25, 2004 3:24 PM


I can still pop-lock like a sumbitch. And I've been known to stop and break out "The Robot" when bored at work.

by Maine at August 25, 2004 6:53 PM


Some people think that kids are inside all the time now because their parents are afraid to let them outside. I used to play some computer games by myself, and Linz is right, the memories to those aren't that interesting. Granted my brother and sister and I used to play Monopoly and Summer Games (from Electronic Arts... did anyone else play that?) together on the computer religiously and we had some good times. But the memories of building forts, riding tricycles, and the year I figured out how to make bows and arrows from bamboo skewers are definitely more fleshed out.

I guess my experience was halfway between Ezy's and that of today's kids.

by jean at August 26, 2004 4:29 AM


I thought of you when writing that Snaggle. I never figured out why they called it smear the queer. One guy would go to an end of a football field and the rest would try to tackle him (smear him) before he made it to the opposing end zone. Kids are strange that way, I guess.

Jean, I didn't use a computer until I was almost seventeen. My parents didn't have the money, or the desire, to own a computer so I missed out on computer games. I did play a kick ass game of Pitfall though. I even scored the requisite 100,000 points to send a poloroid in and get a Pitfall patch. That was a proud day.

Linz, it does seem like a pretty flat way to spend your childhood. My nephews are both very athletic, not to mention competitive, so it confuses me as to why they would choose to live through a game rather than do it for real. Some people have no athletic ability so I could see them playing video games to be competitive in some way but both of these boys are natural athletes. Go figure.

Maine, I can also top rock like a mofo. Booooyyyyyyyyy!

by Ezy at August 26, 2004 2:48 PM


For the first time since he started @ age 6 Ian is refusing to play soccer this season. Oh well, we still have GTA 3 to share and have in common.

by anna at August 27, 2004 6:22 PM


Those video games are going to melt your brain Anna.

by Ezy at August 28, 2004 11:34 AM


You can gain valuable points and health by snagging skanky hookers off the debris-strewn street. What better life lesson for a 14 year old?

by anna at August 29, 2004 8:10 AM


It's how I spent my youth and I turned out ok....I guess.....except for the occasional therapy sessions and the overwhelming sense of self loathing, never mind.

by Ezy at August 30, 2004 9:29 AM


Ezy your comment reminds me of that classic Nirvana line where Cobaine seems to be onto something brilliant and then he just mumbles, "Whatever. Never mind." That's art.

by anna at August 30, 2004 7:38 PM


Cobain was the master of that art Anna. What's up with the freakin humidity the last few days? I feel like I'm in a steam room every time I leave the house. Nasty.

by Ezy at August 31, 2004 8:46 AM