Do Kids These Days Miss Out On Adventure?

[bluefortress]

Do you think that kids of today miss out on a bit of adventure. Or am I mistaken?

I remember in the 90's spending the whole day outside climbing huge trees, buildings and going over ramps made by other kids on a bicycle. 
 

Maybe it is done these days too but I haven't seen kids climbing trees in ages. To be fair thinking back it was dangerous so wouldn't recommend, but still I never see it. Nor do I see outdoor games like man hunt and cocky rustie. 

[jennyjoan]

Or. KDRF.    KICK DOORS RUN FAST. Not nice but when you are only 8 years old

[bluefortress]

Oh we called it knock and run

[Atheist]

You crouch down inside a garden gate, tuck yourself down on one side of the front path between the privet hedge and the fence (with a mate crouching on the other side.) When somebody walks along the pavement, you drop a coin onto the front path, then try not to snigger out loud while the person fusses around in the dark searching for their dropped coin, muttering and cursing and occasionally farting as they bend over (best if you have caught a fat elderly gent returning from the pub). We made our own fun in those days.

[davebro3]

We had almost unlimited freedom. Lived near open country, parents busy working long hours. We climbed trees, made rafts on the factory lodges (one boy drowned), set fires, played with knives, air guns & later shotguns, went fishing in the streams & lodges, tickled trout, collected wood for bonfires & made dens in it, raided other gangs bonfire piles, broke into factories "after hours" just to explore. One time we came upon a big bunch of key (don't remember how) but they got us into several places. We were caught in the school boiler room & had the keys confiscated. Happy times.

But today....

[davebro3]

A favourite pastime in summer was building dams in the local stream with rocks and turf. Sometimes deep enough to swim in (but I couldn't swim yet).

[Atheist]

Davebro at 13:08.

We did most of those things too, except for firearms and rafts.

In winter it always snowed and we made slides on the pavement on the estate where we lived. You trample down the snow, preferably on a slope, then turn into black ice by sliding down it. Awful for pedestrians, although I don't remember any incidents. Once made an igloo. Once climbed a tree and pinched a magpie chick which we kept in a rude cage outside the back door of a mate's house. Caught newts and frogs in the ponds left by clay diggers. Caught the bus to a wooded area with a lake, and played japs and english using rusty old discarded silencers as machine guns.

[davebro3]

And trolleys - we made trolleys out of scrap wood & old pram wheels knocked together with 6 inch nails & raced them in the streets. You can't do that these days - there was very little traffic then. (Our street had 150 house - only 2 had cars!) 

[bluefortress]

We did the den thing. I made a lovely den with bits of wood and a gate only for it to be destroyed by the opposing gang. 
 

I remember my friend throwing a rock at a lad, she was a bit mad but somehow always hit her targets. The lads dad then had a go at me but I forgot to tell him that his son had held a razor blade to my throat only weeks prior. 
 

Everyone just did as they pleased

[Barsel]

Perhaps some children have too much freedom.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c511v3xplldo

[barry1010]

Children play in the woods at the back of my house and in the cul de sac at the front. The same sort of games my kids played.  

When I were a lad we called it thunder and lightning or knock and run.

There were two terraced houses with front doors that opened on to the street. We kids thought it hilarious to tie the two doorknobs together and then knock both doors and run for our lives.

 

 

[davebro3]

These memories come flooding back. Finding newts, tadpoles & frogs, collecting bird eggs. We made model boats from balsa wood fitted with jetex solid fuel propulsion & sailed pond yachts. 

[10ClarionSt]

Trees? Frogs? Newts? Fields? There were no such things where we lived in Ancoats. It was a concrete jungle full of slums and postwar bombed out buildings. Jersey St; George Leigh St; Butler St; Kemp St; Anita St; Sherratt St; Thompson St. amongst others. Not a tree in sight. The bombed out and derelict buildings were mainly our play areas.

Now they tell us that Ancoats is one of the most desirable places to live in the UK. And still no trees!

[fourteen85]

Bluefortress, we called it Tap Latch

[barry1010]

Bombed buildings were my jungle playground