Something You Miss About Your City....

[ate12]

I live in Visalia, CA. It's a tiny town of about 110,000 people. We used to have the best little independent record store called Ragin' records, but its been gone for several years now. Back then we had no live music scene and now we've got a great one. We're about the only stop worth a damn between SF and LA. I guess its a decent trade off.

[nicesunny]

yup,that's might be true.

[ElKabong]

I don't live too far from my childhood home, but I miss the way things were in our local park. It had an old fighter plane for us kids to play on. There was broken glass & hard ground if you fell off of it. Nothing was rubber coated. It was the coolest thing ever, & we loved it. We had to learn to watch out for ourselves, rather than growing up in a completely safe world. If you got hurt, your parents would tell you to be more careful, instead of suing the city.

There was an open air theater, with a stage that had a weird echo overhead when you spoke. We'd climb up there just to hear the echo. I heard Ronald Reagan speak there in 1976 before he lost the primary to Gerald Ford.

There was a steep hill covered in trees & loose dirt that we'd ride our bikes down. You had to be good to not eat it on that hill. Steel monkey bars & tall fast steel slides. Tall swings. A steel merry go round. We'd hang on tight & our dads would spin it so fast that it'd seem like we'd fly off. Stone walls divided the different areas of the park. We'd try to balance & walk in top of the walls. Our parents would send us to the park to play. We had a sense of independence. We were in charge of what we did, & we were responsible to take care of ourselves. We had to learn which dare was too stupid to take.

Most of that is gone now. The plane went first. The theater is fenced off to cut down on the vandalism. The tree covered hill is no more. Everything is "safe" to play on. Kids will grow up in a world where they can't be hurt, & if they do it must be someone else's fault. They will grow up without learning the concept of self preservation, & that sense of freedom. I don't think that's an improvement. I miss our plane.

[germey]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

... I miss our plane.

Great rant. Well done. In my childhood park it was an old decommissioned steam locomotive. We also had the really tall slides and other stuff.
Seems like our general fear of "something might happen" has run off with much of our actual happiness.
I think also we forget the stuff that was bad and look back with rose colored glasses.
Kids have died unnecessarily. The bullies had more sway in general life than they do now. As a kid, we made due, but a lot of the stuff was really pretty crappy. My kids enjoy the playground every bit as much as I did and have some things that would have blown my mind.
The fact that we just don't have as much space anymore is just reality.
I personally don't give my kids as much free-range as I had, but I don't shelter them as much as most of my peers. They are definitely getting used to their own self-inflicted injuries. For perspective, I installed a zipline in the back-yard for the kids, but only joke about making their friends sign waivers.
In the end, I have to agree that the liability mentality has been a severe detriment to society.

[germey]

Originally Posted by sutsch13

I live just out side of Fortuna and I miss all of the little sporting good shops that used to be around town, I remember day dreaming in all the little hardware/sporting good shops.

Hey,
I grew up in Eureka. My first kiss was from a Fortuna girl.
My old best friends Dad was the owner of one of those sporting goods shops that is no longer there.
Every time I go visit my family up there, I notice the signs of continued economic stagnation. Guess we are still waiting for a (legal) replacement for the Lumber and Fishing industries.