Where are the Snow Forts?

On Thursday last week I drove the old neighborhoods once again after too many years. I was fascinated to find no snow forts,"King of the Mountain" Snow piles, Igloos and many other fun things that were sources for play and sometimes areas of protection from some of the wildest snowball fights I was ever involved in. Oh, the memories of the small guys attacking the older kids in the neighborhood and the numerous times with had to stop to take care of the bloody noses received on both sides. Morning to night the playtime went only to be interupted by one of the mom's call to let us know that hot chocolate was being serve.

I cetainly wonder how kids today get their exercise and also how they learn the heirarcky of the neighborhoods. In a time where computer games and other distraction leave our kids in the corner doing their thing, we need parents to get those kids involved once again in play. I believe that some of best friendships were developed in a 2 to3 square block area from my house. I certainly know the memories are fun to chat about with those friends of 45 to 50 years ago.

I recently ran into Jim Coady at a local restaurant and we laughed about the things we did. The alley was the training area for baseball and everyone participated. The street, well that was like Lambeau Field where evryone learned ti finer points of football and finally the Coady's backyard is where w learned to box. We all boxed against each other and it toughened us all up. We also had 1 small bicycle that everyone learned to ride on up and down Charles Street. Many skinned knees, broken fences and in my case a couple broken arms. But in the end all of us rode that little 2 wheeler proudly up and down Charles Street and in the end it was all good.

So where are todays kids? What are they doing? And how can I drive Clinton Street from George Street to Liberty Street without getting one snowball flying in my direction? Times are changing for sure but much of the times I look back to today took place in our neighborhood on the northside and other neighborhoods on the Land of the Rangers.