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| Where is everybody? |
I know this will probably make me sound like
a dinosaur from ancient history, but here goes: things sure were different when
I was growing up back in the 1960s.
Back then, you saw your neighbors - every
day. Dads and moms and kids and dogs
would be all over the street, doing yard work, talking, visiting, washing the
car, walking, cooking outdoors, playing lawn games like badminton, drinking
beer; generally, enjoying the world outside of their front door.
And we kids - we OWNED the block! We all had bikes, and we lived on them. Everywhere we went, we biked. We played bike polo or dodgeball on bikes. When not biking, we were playing baseball or
football on the empty lot down the block, or basketball in someone's driveway,
or flying kites. Or we'd be swinging on
somebody's swing set. When we got tired of
playing, we'd just lay on the lawn and watch the clouds.
Everyone had a front porch - some
screened, some not, and the whole family would sit out there. Every porch had a bench swing, too. Being on the porch, of course, was an
invitation for anybody and everybody to drop by for a chat.
After
dark, the outdoor activities continued - chasing fireflies, picking out constellations
in the sky, or just running around. (We
didn't have daylight savings time back then, so we didn't have to wait till 9
pm for the sun to finally go down.)
And nowadays? We hardly ever see our neighbors. There are some people on our block that we
have absolutely never seen. I remember a
neighbor we once had who, as he was driving home, would hit his remote garage
door opener. He'd drive into his garage,
whereupon the door would close behind him.
And that was the only time we ever saw him.
Lawn work? Naw - they all hire lawn care companies to do
that.
Kids?
They are rarely out and about. Do
families even own swing sets nowadays? Do
kids even own bicycles?
Most
of the folks have nicely landscaped and manicured lawns, both front and
back. I can say with certainty that nobody
actually uses their front lawn for anything.
Regarding back lawns, it's hard to be certain, because of the tall wooden
fences everywhere (which also seemed to not exist back in the good ole' days). But judging from the lack of sounds like voices
and laughing and games and kids playing, plus no smoking barbeques nor other
evidence of outdoor activity, I'd have to conclude that back yards aren't used
much either.
So where is everybody? Well, the primary finger of blame points to
technology. Air conditioning. Electric lights. Computers, tablets, smart phones, and other
devices. Endless on-demand movies, TV
series, news, sports, weather, and countless entertainment options at the click
of a button. Electronic games. There are even nature shows, for some real
irony. Then you have the Internet, and
all its spawn: You-Tube, Facebook, Snapchat,
Amazon, and the zillions and zillions of other websites out there.
And
no, it's not just the millennials who have succumbed to the irresistible pull
of 24-7 connectivity, although they are, or course, very technologically astute. No, even my generation of Boomers can't seem
to tear their attention away from their devices long enough to smell the grass and
hear the birds sing. Face it: lawn chairs on the front porch can't compete
with technological comfort.
What is all this indoor imprisonment doing
to our mental and physical health? Many
health professionals, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and
naturalists have mounting piles of evidence that we human beings, at our core,
are really creatures of the outdoors. Being out in nature is in our DNA, is good for
our minds, and good for my bodies. Well,
try telling that to the couch potato with his face buried in his TV, or smartphone.
Sigh.
I guess I was just born in the wrong century.
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