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Monday, September 5, 2011

Imagination

What a wonderful concept, IMAGINATION. It’s a word and concept that sometimes seems to be in short supply today, especially in our younger generation. Most of you are in the same age bracket as Beatrice and I so when i reminisce about childhood you probably know exactly what i mean.

As a kid i remember heading out he door at 8:30 in the morning for a day filled with adventure. Adventures that were fueled by imagination. A simple stick became a fishing pole to catch ORKA, a rifle to protect the town from desperados, a climbing stick needed to scale the tall mountains, a sword to fend off pirates that were boarding our sailing ship. As long as i showed up for dinner without too many bruises and not bleeding or missing any important limbs,  all was right in the world. After dinner it was back out (but not off the block) to engage in some semi pseudo sports.

If you’ve never read “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard louv please do (but not before bedtime due to possible nightmares). If you have i’m sure the answer the one kid gave to why he didn’t want to play in the woods (because their are no plug out there) is as firmly burnt into your mind as it is mine. It’s a scary thought but a common one in today's youth. Of course the development of the 10 hour battery (like the one in the netbook i’m typing on) may relieve some of that stress.

I don’t know about you but when i was a kid a patch of woods (large forest to me) was one of the most magnetic places in kiddom. Open field? Instant playground with or without formal ‘play equipment’. All we needed was IMAGINATION…..

There are no pictures today. I’m adhere to our rule of not showing folks, faces, friends, or fiends (sometimes a difficult task). SOOOO you will have to use your IMAGINATION. Come on now, you know it’s in there somewhere. Check that dark, cobwebby cubbyhole back by your left ear…. That’s the one!!!!! Now turn it on and picture this!!!

As most of you know, we are on the road again. Beatrice keeps telling me it is a vacation. BUT being in New Jersey voluntarily is not my vision of a vaction, no matter how much IMAGINATION i apply. Yesterday morning we took Beatrice’s mom (Age 89 on Sept. 9, and still going strong) out for breakfast to her favorite Pancake place. The table next to us filled in with a family and one kid about 8 years old. The father had carried in a tablet ‘puter, so we just thought he was a fellow geek (like us). He proceeds to fire it up and then hand it to the kid, who mentally dissolves into the screen of what ever game it was.

A few minutes later another family comes in and after sitting the mother proceeds to hand the kid in the group (about 5 or 6) her ‘smart phone’.

My thought at that time was “Why do kids have to be electronically sedated????? Have we run out of Prozac???? (Possibility, since we are no longer allowed to reach over and smack a bratty kid).

I’m sure that most of you have observed the same scenario  time and again.

There have been a large group of Asian folks staying at the hotel we are at. I discovered this morning that it is a “Korean Church Weekend Picnic”. It covers all age groups from grandparents to toddlers. This morning the lobby was filled with kids playing and patient watching adults. Amazingly i saw not one electronic gadget. Not even the adults were tethered to gizmos. Well i should correct that, because some of the kids were tethered. To each other ( NO NOT DUCT TAPED!!!!). The lead child would be holding one end of a jump rope (remember those????? Check the dusty cubby near your right earlobe). The other child was holding onto the other end of the jump rope being pulled. I have no idea what they IMAGINED they were doing, BUT THEY WERE HAVING FUN!!!!!! (Don’t let Ms Hannigan know).

IMAGINATION!!!!!! It does an old imagination ( and sometimes an over active one) good to know that IMAGINATION is still well and thriving!!!! Imagine that????

Grenville

12 comments:

Christine said...

I don't think children in this day and age know what it means to use your imagination. It's sad. We used to play in the dirt, climb trees and rocks, build forts in the woods. I could go on and on. I miss those fun, carefree times! SIGH!

grammie g said...

Hey Grenville ...Oh can I ever relate...
95% of our time was spend outside ..well of course except when we had school!!
Even then it was outside for recess playing Red Rover~~~Red Rover may ..Grenville come over yes he may!!!
loved that game...
We build forts in snow camp sites in the woods ..Cowboys and Indians ..tents out of brush and and old sheets..dug marble pits and played marbles for hour's do you remember the "poppers"...

Enough.. oh yes it is a different world, but I will say my daughter keeps my grandson who is 10 involved in as mush outside activity as possible... he has a great imagination...he still has his eleconics though !!!
Thanks for the memories!!
Grace

Montanagirl said...

Yes, imagine that! Kids nowadays have no imagination, and I think it's due to all the electronic gadgets out there in the world.

Anonymous said...

I know exactly what You mean! We had a small pond not far from where I lived and for us it was a big lake or ocean :-) We even tried to make a raft anf float over it but the pond was just to shallow :-) :-) :-)

Today when I see it I hardly even can call it a pond :-) But I do feel sorry for the kids today, how will they survive if the electricity is gone for more than ten hours :-) :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

jp@A Green Ridge said...

Great post...and I had just thought the same thing (about using our imaginations to keep us busy when we were young!) as I watched some of the grand children suffer from boredom because they had no power for so long!...:)JP

Anonymous said...

Go outside some day and don't go back in the house until the next morning. You will find an active imagination at work. It works on anybody.

Sara said...

It's not just imagination they are not developing but also the ability (and maybe the desire) to communicate effectively FACE TO FACE. In just a few years ( if notnow ) there will be a dearth of social skills--and those with social skills will RULE THE WORLD!!!!

Ginnie said...

Remember the old expression, "just imagine that" ! It covered all sorts of situations. I get a kick out of returning to a place where I played as a child and seeing it through adult eyes. At what point did those "mountains" become hills?

Elaine said...

Ah, yes, imagination! It's what is responsible for all of the great advances of mankind. AS for your word picture, I can picture just what you're talking about because I have seen it in restaurants many times. Sometimes it's not the kids with the gadgets but the parents so involved in their phones that no conversation is going on while the kids just sit there. A good portion of our younger generation is growing up with very little social skills.

Anvilcloud said...

Times are changing so much, sometimes in infuriating ways.

Carole Barkett said...

I think the electronic gizmos sap the imagination unfortunately. It must have been nice to see

Pauline said...

Oh dear, I had my imagination in the wrong place. Must be genetic. My grand-daughter keeps hers in the middle of her forehead, too and she informed me it's about as big as a flea but hold lots of stuff "like a computer chip".

Thanks for a great post.