Children Playing

Good Sunday morning to you all. It is a new week here at OPOD, and we are going to be looking at pictures of children playing. This picture was taken in the Summer of 1938 in New York City, and shows a group of children playing on the sidewalk. I can remember as a child we played all the time. For the most part, playing involved either building things or using the imagination. Dirt clods were hand grenades, and you would pretend the cows were attacking German troops. We would build forts, play in barns, explore, or make things. As you played, you dreamed of some day really being an explorer, or really building a real airplane. Play today, in my mind is too organized and structured. Today play is centered around things like Xbox games, which stimulate the senses, but do not stimulate the imagination. These games also do not have any real social interaction, so social skills are not developed. I think we also overdo things like youth soccer. True these games do help develop social skills, but they do not spur imagination or creativity in the same way that building something does. When I was young, building models was a big thing. Most kids built model airplanes that would really fly from balsa wood and tissue paper. The simple ones were powered by winding a rubber band, and the more advanced ones had gas engines. Today few kids read, instead they watch movies. Each year the movies become more graphic . . . bigger explosions, more brutal fights, and less story. This is very different than reading a book, where your brain creates a little movie as you read. Working with kids, I have to say that I see a huge difference in development in this generation raised on Xbox, soccer, and movies. There is a lack of creativity, of big dreams and goals, and of social skills. So, parents, lets get our kids more models, bicycles and books. What do you think?

Domestic Update:

Well, school is out, so I have the summer to do all the things I have been wanting to do. Oh my, look at the picture below. Is that a big semi-truck pulling up to the old PJM house? I wonder what could be in it? Well, I am not going to tell you, you have to guess. You can enter as many guesses as you want. I will not respond to each guess today, so everyone will have a chance to enter. I will announce the answer tomorrow. What could Mr. PJM possibly be up to now?