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You see a lot about the kids from the eighties. The typical drank from hoses and home by streetlights. It runs fairly close to the truth. My oldest had a watch and all of my kids came home to my bellows that I’m sure echoed off the river and back. My kids ran in a pack with several other kids and they were safer in numbers. I hardly ever see kids outside now. We have to be cautious.

My first school backed onto a ravine, it had a steep hill on each side, woods and a small creek. I was at that school until grade five. We were permitted to play there and in the winter we would go sliding on the hill. We didn’t have teachers watching us there. We lined up, we took turns or at least most of us did. Someone always got hurt as the hill turned into an ice luge. You walked alone back to the school to get fixed up. Your blood was a warning to others that maybe it was dangerous. I remember a little grade two boy playing with a 2×4 in the ravine and he whacked me in the stomach with it because I told him it wasn’t safe. Another time in the schoolyard, a child licked the windowsill and their tongue was stuck until someone went in and got a teacher and they came out to help.

I got hurt three times at school during recess, besides the two by four incident. Once I was watching the middle school play hockey, yes we had an outdoor rink with boards a round it, I got the backhand of a hockey stick lining up to take a shot. My first black eye. Another time, I sprained my ankle, jumping in on my turn skipping. The principal carried me to his car and drove me home. In middle school, another school with a ravine, woods and a huge river, I stepped on a nail and it went through my foot. Those are the ones that stand out. Sometimes I think we micro manage too many things. Stuff happens anyways, we will blame anyways. It is inevitable, it is life, hopefully you learn from it.