It came along too late for me and my kids. Kids did have hula hoops though.

We jumped off of roofs and fences into swimming pools, and water skied in canals behind trucks. We ran around barefoot on hot pavement, jumping in patches of grass to cool them. If we needed water, a handy garden hose was used. If we couldn't ride our bikes to where we needed to go, we rode in the back of pickup trucks. I feel sorry for my kids.

I feel sorry for kids nowdays too. They actually don't know how bored they are. Its why they are such whiny little boogers.

In the winter, we played hockey with no pads. We also rode our bikes on the ice, and fashioned ski jumps out of snow. None of us ever ended up with anything worse than a few bruises or a twisted ankle. We came home tired, winded, happy, and ready to do it again the next day. Boredom was not a problem.

Slap shots without pads and helmets. Ah the good old days. Damn the white privilege of playing hockey on frozen flooded farm fields.

My boyhood hockey games were on a frozen lake, but the principle was the same. It was really a special experience to take a shot off an ankle in 10 degree weather.

I had the great fortune of growing up with brothers and never could say no to a "double dare ya". My dad said scars were a sign of a happy childhood.

My younger brothers had Big Wheels and while they raced up and down the street, I rode m bike - all the way downtown which was at least a mile away. One day I rode down a hill(of course it felt giant)on my Schwinn and a tree stopped me. The bruises were in places a helmet wouldn't have protected. I don't get it. I'm a female and I think the wussification of this country is a terrible thing. It starts by denying kids a childhood of freedom, fun, and exploration.

We tore the wheels off of our skates and nailed them to a scrap of 2x4 and screamed downhill on them all day long. Sometimes while doing handstands.

Yeah, pond hawkey!, skating to close to the edge and breaking through. Fashioning pucks out of plywood on the band-saw. "what, you lost another one?!? I'm not buying anymore!" Full moon nights and bonfires. Too old for Big Wheels, but we had pellet guns, .22's...ask any kid, "whaddya want, a Big Wheel, or a sixteen shot semi-auto Remington?"

Yeah, that's what I thought...

How 'bout taking your .22 rifle to school on the big yellow bus on Thursdays for participation in a federally funded target training program. Yep. Fifth through eighth grade. And, in Kalifornia to boot.

No killings ever came to anyone's mind either. No video games or mind bending television. No queers/rapists in the girls restroom either. No refried vomit for lunch, thank you Mrs. obozo.

We took our shoes off and ran barefoot all summer until they were so callused you could run down a graveled alley. We got up at first light and came home when the street lights came on. We made snow forts in the winter, tree forts in the summer, rafts like Tom Sawyer, fished for bullheads and ate them cooked on stoves made from coffee cans.

There was one movie theater in town with cowboy movies on Saturday, and only three tv channnels, with cartoons on Sunday, that me and my brothers would watch with the sound turned down hoping my folks would sleep in so we could skip sunday school...

Poor little buggers now have only the internet and gov co schools.

We ran behind DDT trucks spraying .. Got purple stuff on every classmates head for scabies ( in Japan) slid off roofs into construction sand piles . Drive cars sitting in DAD 's lap . His feet on pedals .. On highways .. Did fireworks , played with liquid Mercury .. Caught lightening bugs .. Fed them grass as they lived in pierced metal topped mason jars.. Briefly .. Stopped for flag ceremony at 1700 hours .. Could swear in many languages and find fake id's. Drink beer and smoke behind the barn..walk the beams of said barn .. Sold magazines , seeds , chocolate , cards door to door for school .

But why has the issue of marriage equality galvanised so many more young people than other referenda and elections? "[Young people] are slower to vote in general elections because they don't feel they have the same stake in society as older people," according to Dan O'Neill, an activist with Young Workers' Network, which is led by young trade unionists. "Because they're on zero hour contracts and low wages, and rent and house prices are so high, they are struggling to make ends meet and aren't settling down at the same age as their parents would have. Politicians don't often talk about these types of crises. This issue [of marriage equality], on the other hand, affects people regardless of what stage of life they're at. We all know someone who is openly gay."