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When I was a kid, and into my innocent adventurer years. my mother never had to tell me to go outside to play. It was the 1970's, and summer had some unspoken rules. I left the house at sunrise, and wasn't expected back until just before sundown. If you had a bike, the world belonged to you. At the time, our lake town was small with just about 3500 people. Our house backed up to the lake and several State Parks. In 1976, it cost about $25,000 to buy a home on the lake. Today, my city is over a half a million people, and lake property is well into the millions.
So what does a group of 8 year olds do all day? There was no internet. I had an Atari later, but video games was something you did when there was a storm out. Frogger was fun, but not build a fort and go crawdad fishing fun. We built ramps to jump off our bikes like a stunt driver. We built legit treehouses. We fished and swam in the lake. Occasionally, we would find a Playboy magazine in the woods, and peek through the pages giggling at the sight of boobs. There were not enough hours in the day to complete our adventures.
My father ended up constructing a really awesome treehouse in our backyard for my friends and I. When it was a sleepover time, we all piled into our fort, and slept outside. It even had a rope ladder and a fireman's pole as options to exit. There were 8 kids in my neighborhood that I grew up with all the way to graduating high school. It was mostly boys and a couple of girls. I remember one of the saddest days being around the summer before we entered the 7th grade. My parents sat me down and explained how those co-ed slumber parties could not happen anymore. It was not longer ok for boys and girls to sleep together.
Of that group of friends, only half of us are still living. Every once and awhile, I get the bug to go camping. It is just a desire to sleep outside. That is when I think of those days and smile.
BackPack: [VALE KOER] Technical BackPack @ Uber
Props: [ kunst ] Browler Set @ Uber
Sim Location: de*cid*u*ous (Opening July 15th)