Manning Park February 2012
Growing up I didn’t have to walk knee-deep in snow ten miles uphill to and from school each day but my childhood was certainly different from the current generation.
Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.
I am glad for the lack of electronics then as I live now in that age but also have the benefit of having grown up without it and memories of simpler activities.
I can appreciate colour tv because when I was young, tv was black and white. I hope you are sitting down for this, I’m not kidding, no remote control, really. If you wanted to change the channel you had to walk over and do it yourself, same with volume. We only had a handful of channels anyway.
I can appreciate cell phones because when I was young, they didn’t exist and our phone had a dial.
Before I get carried away with the differences, and get all verbose, the title of this post is “you sunk my battleship”. You may know the game where two people fire imaginary shots at the other player’s hidden ships. My Dad and I played this game with hand drawn grids on sheets of paper. I see that now as a privilege to have learned to have played games with not much more than paper and pens.
My Dad also bought balsa wood for me and taught me to make kites by hand with newspaper, string and with the right wind I flew them at the park two blocks from our home in East Vancouver.
Playing hide and seek in the yard with other kids, riding my bike, shooting peas through straws, water pistols, and playing catch are the memories of my youth. I did watch tv as well but in my mind it was fairly balanced childhood between tv and outside activity.
I hope you have memories like I have, some special activities with your family growing up that are special, they are yours forever, share them, cherish them like I do my sunk battleships.
