Here in the Great Pacific Northwest, Portland has been enjoying a rare run of warm, sunny and rainless days. This May has been the driest, most pleasant May in the 8 years I have lived here. I even had to water the garden today...practically unheard of this time of year.
But this isn't a diary about the nice weather. It's about an observation I was struck by the past few days...As nice as the weather is, I don't see any kids outside enjoying it. Nowhere.
No girls jumping rope. No boys playing ball. No groups of kids playing hide and seek at dusk. Nobody throwing frisbees. The parks are almost empty. No kids are flying kites. The baseball diamonds are vacant. Nobody is playing catch. When I walk through the neighborhood to go to the store, I pass by many houses where young kids live. I haven't seen a hopscotch game drawn onto the sidewalk with colored chalk in all the years I've lived here.
A couple homes have portable basketball backboards in the driveway, but I rarely see anyone shooting hoops. We have lots of great, mature trees throughout the neighborhood. I've never seen a kid climbing one of them. Nor have I ever noticed a tree fort built into one of them. Never seen a tent pitched in someone's backyard where somebody's kids decided to have a "backyard camp-out."
I see them go to school in the morning, or, more often, being driven to school. But other than that??? Nada. They disappear. I don't hear them laugh. I don't hear them chatter with friends outside. I don't see them run, or even ride their bikes.
I don't see any kids play...and I haven't for a long, long time.