Go outside and play

I don't usually watch Sixty Minutes but Mom had it on last night when I went to visit, so we watched—because we both wanted to see Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans cuss out the president and the feds. He done a good job. We continued to watch. Something else I saw got me thinking of childhood—the freedom of my childhood versus the structured nature of so many current suburban childhoods.

The structure of my childhood consisted of only two things: school and freedom. We had long afternoons after school, the weekends, and those stretched-out, lovely summer days to play in. My time off was bracketed by two sentences: "Go outside and play" and "Get in here because your supper's getting cold!" Everything between was left to me, my friends, and our imaginations.

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