Growing up I rode my bike everywhere. The two rules were, "don’t go into anyone’s house" and "be back before dark". I had multiple friends, a school playground, and a park within a mile of my house. If I did anything wrong, my father knew about it before I got home. There were kids everywhere, we would run from yard to yard, jumping over hedges and playing in each other’s yards.
But something happened. Cable, Atari, Nintendo, one by one the kids started disappearing and the grass grew back on the paths between houses. Is it that parents live in fear of giving their children independence to run from house to house due to predators? Or perhaps children are busy, constantly being shuttled from one activity to the next. I look around and see backyards hidden with privacy fences, preventing us from communicating with each other. Neighborhoods built without parks and houses built without porches.
