Jun 11, 2013 3 min read

Do kids still enjoy summer? I mean, do they really enjoy it? I wonder.

The kinds of summers I enjoyed growing up can no longer exist because things change, even when you don’t want them to.

I wonder, do kids still run around in the yard catching lightning bugs (or are they called fireflies now?) and putting them in jars that have lids pierced with holes?

I wonder what happened to all the chalk marks on sidewalks. You know, all those different colors with messages, hopscotch and just general doodling that have been scuffed away.

I wonder, do families still sit on front porches in the evening to relax and wait for a cool breeze to waft by? Adults beckoning to neighbors to drop over for a refreshing drink, or mothers, and it’s usually the mothers, rounding up the young ones after a day of nonstop play?

“Come on Billy, it’s 9:30 and time to come home and take a bath.”

“Oh, Mom. A few more minutes. We’re playing kick the can.”

I wonder, do kids still play outside, or do they play inside, sitting in front of a computer, or with Xbox, or with all the other electronic gadgetry?

As a kid, I remember one summer night sitting in the backyard looking at the sky. It was hot, and in the distance there was lightning.

I would ask if it was going to storm. Oh, don’t worry, I was told. It’s just heat lightning. So, it wasn’t the complete truth, but back then, what was the harm?

When I was a kid, summertime was a carefree time, and unfortunately that term doesn’t apply anymore. Carefree has turned into be careful.

Don’t stay out past dark. Don’t go too far away from home. Don’t play in the streets. Don’t go near so-and-so’s house.

When did the age of innocence evaporate? When did a mother become afraid to let her child go out and play alone, always fearful she would go outside and find that her baby was gone?

When did children become victims of drive-by drug shootings? When did this world start to go crazy?

I smelled honeysuckle the other day and was transported back to a time when the world wasn’t crazy, or when I didn’t know it was crazy.

I saw my best friend riding his bike in front of my house. He had attached a playing card to the wheel spokes. That was cool.

I saw myself lighting those snakes on the sidewalk July 4. That was the extent of my exposure to Independence Day pyrotechnics, except for the community fireworks display.

I saw myself sitting along the curb, water rushing over my feet after a big rain. It smelled so clean back then. And the honeysuckle was even more intoxicating.

I saw myself trying to go to sleep on a hot summer night, windows open and night creatures chirping.

What was I going to do tomorrow? Probably play pickup baseball, or go swimming or just get dirty and sweaty. It really didn’t matter because then I believed that in summertime, the livin’ was easy.

Now I wonder.

Jon Stevens is Greene County bureau chief. He can be reached at jstevens@observer-reporter.com.