When I was a kid – long before cable television, before video games, or DVDs, or the Internet – my friends and I played outside. All. Day.
We’d leave home after breakfast, only coming home for lunch, then heading back out again until it was dark. We had bikes to ride, games to play, balls to throw.
We’d roam around the forest, picking wildflowers and finding tiny treasures of stone and wood. There were competitions at the playground to see who could swing the highest, then jump out of the seat.
As I got older, other things occupied my time – school, friends, boys, books, work – and getting outside, escaping into the woods to explore and pretend, wasn’t so important any longer.
Today, I have a family and pets to tend, carpets to vacuum, shelves to dust, dishes and clothes to wash, bills to pay, and meals to cook. There’s little time for play.
Yet… it’s even more important now to find an outlet, to make time to escape. Each weekend I leave behind my chores and obligations, leaving home after breakfast and not heading back until dinner.
I find woods to explore, and dunes to climb, pretending I’m a traipsing through never before seen wilderness. I wander the empty corridors of a long, empty fort, or among ancient cemetery stones, imagining past lives of piracy or country building. I am a kid again, playing make-believe, escaping from the predictability of a settled life.
Today is my weekly photo hike, and I haven’t decided yet where I’ll go, but wherever it is, I’ll make is a grand adventure.
Thin spiral notebook 
May you keep your inner child.
LikeLike
And back when the street lights came on. I wonder if that is still used as a curfew for kids… Like you, I was out by 7:30 am back for lunch then dinner. There was so much to explore and discover!
Great escape!
LikeLike
There does seem to be serious lack of outdoor fun for today’s kids.
LikeLike
You timed everything as a kid by daylight. The worst trouble you could get into was coming home after the streetlights came on.
LikeLike
Yes! Streetlights were the summons home.
LikeLike
My childhood best friend and I used to play in the gulley behind my house and create secret fortresses in the woods while swinging our legs from tree boughs. Then, we would run to her house and up into her room and play “Charlie’s Angels”. Her dad was even sweet enough to call me by my “new name” whenever I was over there. This post brought back so many of those memories. Great picture, too!
LikeLike
I wish my kids had the same kind of freedom we did growing up. We literally were outside from morning ’til night. I would have never let my kids be gone that long, that young… and that’s a sad commentary on society.
LikeLike
I was like 11 at that time, but I remember being gone all day when I was 8 on up. I’m lucky to live in a community where everyone is watching everyone’s kids so I feel a bit safer letting mine stay out and explore. There are plenty of warnings in place and boundaries established but I’ve started relaxing the boundaries as long as the younger ones are with friends (not my 5 yr old, not yet).
LikeLike
When my kids were young, we lived out in the middle of nowhere. Should have been safe, but there were a lot of places they could get lost. I would have loved it as a kid.
LikeLike