"Summertime -- and the livin' is easy"

Maybe not so much any more.

Dave Shiflett says summers aren’t what they used to be.

Today is safer – and a lot less fun.

Shiflett opens his essay (Wall Street Journal 7/6/2013 p.C1 --  link to online essay ): "Of all the seasons, summer seems to evoke the most childhood memories, probably because of its singular status as the Season of No School! Ah, the freedom to frolic beyond the reach of scolding teachers and paddle-wielding assistant principals, to pursue the idle arts of cloud-gazing, star-counting, making firefly lanterns and perhaps even skinny-dipping with an adventurous cheerleader (or, more likely, her less-glamorous cousin)."

But no more.

"Contemporary gunophobes will gasp, but guns were as common as iPhones are today. Most boys I knew had at least one toy rifle, pistol or submachine gun (preferably, one of each)" Shiflett writes.

I recall having several cap pistols. With at least one, I could put in double or triple paper caps, and make a really big bang. Got in trouble a few times, but no one got hurt. I don’t recall any specific prohibition, but we usually didn’t take out cap pistols to school, but if we did the worst would be the teacher confiscating s until after school. Today, of course, it would be akin to a major felony (possibly, literally) to do so, and expulsion or transfer to a "special education" (read re-education camp) school for a semester, or even longer. Shiflett relates that "no member of [his] heavily armed circle ever shot anyone" for real. The same is true for me. There were some kids in the neighborhood who were known as "hoods" but they mostly left alone those who didn’t mess with them.

What about parents? "[M]ost parents of that era deserved to do time at Leavenworth. What sinners they were! They sent us outside without sunscreen, let us ride bikes without helmets and jump on trampolines without "safety barriers," and smiled as we vied with our siblings for the premier spot in the family sedan: the ledge underneath the back window, where you could stretch out and take a nap."

But that is not to say we were total anarchists, Shiflett says. "When we got out of line we were "corrected" with the help of leather belts or expertly wielded hairbrushes (known in some households as "Officer Porcupine"). If we cussed (about which more in a minute), we got our mouths washed out with soap. If someone had told us that a few decades hence parents could be arrested for such manifestations of concern, we would have assumed the commies had made good on their promise of world domination."

Using marijuana or "hard" drugs, the only one of which most of us knew about was heroin, didn’t occur to most of us. Use of alcoholic beverages was about as adventurous as one got, even though it was an expulsion offense at our school. Probably most of us tried beer, or maybe whiskey. Sloe gin was popular, especially among the girls. Wine was for winos, of which there are quite a few more these days. Cigarettes were cool (and you didn’t have to be 18 to buy them); smoking was even permitted at school so long as you did it outside at least ten feet away from the building.

I recall that public parks had see-saws, swings, monkey bars and other playground devices that are outlawed now, though I never heard of any serious casualties allegedly caused thereby. Sure there were pinched fingers, and minor cuts and bruises, scraped knees, and so forth. It was great fun to lift a lighter companion, often of the female persuasion, all the way up on the see-saw, and jump off quickly. A kid today would probably do a stint in juvenile detention for that, and his parents would be sued, the damages being mostly would be "mental distress" to the kid.

Shiflett concludes that "Hypercaution has saved lives, but it has diminished life in the bargain."

You may read his essay at the link above. I’d like to hear readers’ thoughts on this topic.