You Tube video
Continuing with our discussion of playing in the Village, it seemed this video fit. One gets the flavor of wandering kids passing the time of day in their own adventures.
I have some good story telling pickings here from my husband Norm, who is older than I by two years. Norm was brought up as we were but in a French Canadian neighborhood (did not attain"village" status) in Ocean Grove, part of Swansea,MA. He, too, hung with a little gang and here are a few of their "little rascal" adventures.
Seaside there were great places to explore, such as where great chunks of ice gathered and flowed in an ocean inlet. The boys, of course, commenced to jump from one ice floe to another til Norm fell in. Looking up he saw only a ceiling of ice. He thought he was done for but managed to get out with the help of the other boys. However, when he hit the cold all the water froze on him. Like a real Little Rascal he somehow managed to walk home encased in ice. His brother had gone ahead to tell his mother that Norm had "fallen through". Upon reaching his house, he walked up the one flight of stairs. He said he "had a little trouble with that as he was a block of ice"! His mother, so glad he survived just wrapped him in blankets, tucked him in bed after giving him a "hot toddy." He never even caught a cold!
His other story was playing that old favorite hide and seek. The boys (as did we) played this endlessly in a patch of woods nearby. They never could find this one boy. Turns out he dug himself a foxhole and covered himself with tree branches. Now there is an expert hide and seeker...they did not discover his secret for a long time!
Our parents did not need science to tell us how to let our children grow and develop. Dr. Spock had published his first book in 1946. I do not think it was a big seller in the Village. Our parent's instincts and their own memories let us loose with tethers of love, though it could be nerve wracking.
One must let children fledge and fly or they stay moored in fear, their creativity stunted.
oh we could play with cardboard boxes or anything creative to make an adventure. Always busy. Do not remember many obese kids around either. We burned off our calories.Gone all day long on my bike.Walking along way to school. We walked from School Street to Cohannet School and back and forth for lunch. How did we do it?
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