Baby Boomers were raised to be tough.  As a boomer, I speak from experience.  We aren’t as tough as our parents, who fought the war, or our grandparents, who defied the great depression.

 

Our parents and grandparents innately knew that they needed to toughen us up to ensure our survival.  The best example of the institutionalized theory was our playgrounds.  Steel play structures embedded in concrete; overhead ladders, bumper slides, steel rings chained to a swivel at the top of a pole, tetherball, and swing sets.  The ground under all of these toys was covered with asphalt to protect us from mud. I got my second or third concussion when I fell off an overhead ladder in 6th Grade.  I was the center of playground attention until I regained consciousness.

 

My playmates and I saved the wax paper from our sandwiches.  We would sit on it as we rode the slide.  A properly waxed slide would easily send you along at supersonic speed.  There was no way to hang on.  God help you both if you launched before the kid ahead of you cleared the landing zone.  Matters were complicated by the fact that the pit that naturally developed at the bottom of the slide was a mud hole in bad weather.  Skilled sliders, with wax paper, could deftly sail over the hazard.

 

Teeter-totters were an acrobatic art form.  Properly launched, a small boy could be put into low earth orbit if enough big kids jumped on the other end.  Then there was the purgatory of suspension.  Two kids could keep one hanging in the air all recess unless he had enough fortitude to jump.

 

Tetherball was particularly deadly.  We underestimated its violence since it was the girl’s domain.  Broken noses, loose teeth and an occasional concussion were routine for any boy foolish enough to challenge the “Tetherball Queen.”  Black eyes were part of the game.

 

My personal favorite playgrounds were the de-commissioned steam locomotives and “memorial” artillery pieces that adorned some of our parks.  I envied the kids I saw on TV who had Sherman Tanks and fighter jets in their parks to climb on, and in.

 

The playground supervisor at my school was “Safie,” I never knew if that was her real name.  She was the Lifeguard at the pool and the local First Aid Instructor.  She might have been a nurse at some time, she wasn’t afraid of anything or anybody.  I first met her when I was in 4th Grade, walking by the big kid’s baseball diamond.  I was hit in the chest by a line-drive foul ball.  I woke to Safie resuscitating me with the “back-pressure arm-lift.”  I’m not sure which hurt the most, the injury or the indignity.  Safie went through a pint of iodine and a hundred band-aids in any given week.  The teachers loved her as much as the kids feared her.

 

Little boomers were toughened as well; they had sandboxes full of cat shit and rusty Tonka Trucks.  A real boost to immune system and an introduction to the realities of the world.

 

The games we played were significant.  Dodge ball, stealing sticks, capture the flag, crack the whip, kick the can… all played in the street with traffic.

 

Our children, Gen X, have been coddled, they probably won’t survive.  The Millenials are a bit tougher, they came of age just in time for the 2008 Financial Crisis.

 

As parents, we Boomers have lost sight of the need to toughen our children.  Perhaps our memories of childhood softened us.  We chose to deny our children the opportunity to fall off a locomotive, play in traffic, or enjoy the thrill of being bucked off a bumper slide onto the asphalt.

 

Sand boxes, when you find one, have covers to keep the cats out; and are filled with a special play sand that must be purchased in hardware stores and certified for children’s use by health authorities.

 

Playgrounds are abundant.  Lots of grass and RUBBERIZED ASPHALT!  What is that all about?  I think it is a way to “recycle” toxic waste.  Playground equipment is rare, and padded when you find it.  The apparatus of our childhood is non-existent;  a conspiracy of the insurance industry.  A  few enterprising Boomer lawyers trying to make a living in civil litigation have established legal precedents that will decay our culture and weaken the gene pool.

 

We have killed germs to the point where our children have compromised immunity to damn near everything.  Allergies, athsma, obesity, ADHD, electronic game addiction,  and cyber bullying.  What have we done?

 

There are a few glimmers of hope.  The fast food industry has stepped into the void.  Indoor multi-story play structures with ladders, tunnels, slides and reservoirs of plastic balls have attempted to resurrect a generation’s immune development.  There isn’t enough anti bacterial gel to sterilize them.  The random distribution of lost diapers, particularly in the seas of plastic balls, serve to stimulate immune response and  antibodies.   Most of these arenas are in the private sector and somewhat outside the sphere of influence of the germ nazis, at least until the lawyers discover the fertile ground.

 

Skate boards have also been a salvation of the younger generations.  They have evolved into far deadlier machines than the fence boards and roller skates of my generation.  Like motocross, the sport is inspired by the Darwinians.

 

Maybe the younger generations are tougher than I thought…