Okay, at the risk of showing just how big of a nerd I was growing up, I used to tie my jacket around my neck during recess and run around pretending I was "The Greatest American Hero" (a favorite show when I was a kid). We would also divide up into teams and play "GI:Joe". This always involved us kids running around like loons, spouting off cheesy cartoon rhetoric, and being all rough and tumble about it. Star Wars was also huge, with scavenged sticks and tree branches becoming powerful lightsabers. Anther favorite of mine was to pretend I was Spider-man. I would grab onto the swing set chain and imagine I was swinging to the rescue. We played dodge ball and recounted the tales of our glories in battle to all who would hear them. We got bruised up, scraped up, battered, and knocked around. It was an absolute blast. We of the generation of old would come home with our battle scars earned from going toe-to-to with Cobra agents, Sith lords, and other baddies and listen as our parents aked us what the hell happened. When told of the brave and fearless adventures we had embarked on, we would be promptly and properly bandaged and sent back out into the field. That was the whole pint of being a kid and letting your imgination run wild.
Now, kids in school cannot so much as stick out their tonue at another kid without someone crying foul and ranting about the potential harm it could do to our kids. It is as if the adults of today have forgotten what it means to be a child and how important such play is to their development into adults. I sincerely hope this trend over the last couple of decades comes to a crashing halt and people stop being so damned paranoid about such things.
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