Cutting the Apron Strings

Today's New York Times has an interesting article examining the difficulty today's college students have breaking away from their parents. Have College Freshmen Changed? Cutting the Apron Strings examines the phenomenon.

But it starts well before college.

Children seldom get to play on their own. Their sports are organized and supervised by adults. They have no free time - it is all programmed.

Sixty years ago, mothers would shoo us out of the house. "Go out and play. Be back for supper."

We would ride our bikes for miles. For sports, we found a vacant lot and chose up sides. The baseball might be wrapped in tape in lieu of the original leather cover, the cracked bat repaired with electrical tape or even a nail. A few of us had gloves. There was no catcher's equipment, batting helmet or any of that. Any scrap of wood could serve as home plate. Other scraps or a mark in the dust would outline a base. We called our own balls and strikes and outs.

Not an adult in sight.

If there weren't enough kids to have two teams, we played workup. (Also called "scrub" some places).

During football season, we played tackle without helmets or pads. The only shoes were tennis shoes.

In the winter we played basketball on a dirt court, shooting at a hoop attached to a square piece of plywood nailed to a tree. My basketball had laces like a football.

We had to solve our own squabbles.

It wasn't a bad way to grow up.