What is it about today’s younger generation? You pretty much have to force them to go outside and play.

When “baby boomers” were young in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, our parents had to make us come back inside – especially in the summer months.

I know kids and teenagers today have computers and expensive cell phones to surf the internet and to talk to friends on social media. They turn on the television and can have the option to watch so many channels. They have hundreds of TV shows and streaming services to choose from, allowing you to find movies and more.

We were lucky to have one black and white TV and we received three local channels.

Our friends and neighborhood kids would play games like hide and seek, tag, or many other participatory and physical games. Or we might have some of the best whiffle ball games, basketball contests like horse, one-on-one or two-hand touch football.

Now, to get a child outside, you probably have to have your own swimming pool, or an ATV, four-wheeler or dirt bike.

We were lucky to have a bicycle. We would ride up and down the back roads or streets for hours. It was almost like we had our own motorcycle gang.

We did not have a pool, but if we had the chance to wade in a creek, we jumped at the chance. Walking around in cool water and splashing each other was really fun. Trying to catch crawdads was also something you could do. That was a tough task because they are so fast and dart under a rock before you can blink your eyes.

We wasted away the hours in person with our friends and classmates playing outdoors.

There were games kids played in grade school like Red Rover, Mother May I, Hopscotch, Jump Rope, Simon Says and many more. Summertime games could feature Kick the Can or Cowboys and Indians.

The Nolan Grade School playground was always good for a volleyball game or softball game during recess and lunch break. This even carried over into the summer months and included many of the adults who lived in the area.

Some older folks liked to pitch horseshoes. You could hear the clank of the metal shoe against the iron peg for half a mile away. There were those who became really good at horseshoes.

I recall my dad teaching me to skip rocks across the Tug River. Picking out a good flat one was key, and throwing sidearm got the best results. Eventually I could skip a rock across the water to the other bank on the Kentucky side.

I can recall, even after taking my nightly bath, my sister Karen and I going outside after dark and catching a jar full of lightning bugs. It would be so hot and humid, the bath I had just taken did not do me much good after going out in the yard chasing the unlimited number of fireflies.

Or sometimes we would roast marshmallows over an open fire. Talk about a real tasty treat.

Of course, living in Appalachia, we roamed the hills. We were lucky enough to have some great places to climb. At the top of the hill above our house was this huge flat rock you could see all over the town of Nolan and across the Tug River and pretty far up Big Creek, Kentucky.

We would drink water out of a natural spring that came out of the hillside and never give it a thought.

We likely stepped over many a snake and never knew it and were lucky enough not to have gotten bitten by a rattlesnake or copperhead. I guess the Lord was looking out for us.

If you ask most kids today to hike up into the mountains, they would look at you like you were threatening them with harm.

Did you ever swing on a huge vine back in the mountains? Just like Tarzan, we did and that was really fun. (Except for the time one broke on me and I went spiraling to the ground below.) But when you got skinned up or hurt then, unless it was really bad, like a broken bone or a gash needing stitches, you shook it off and went on.

Dad made me a swing with a rope on one of our cherry trees in our yard. It is amazing how much time you can spend on an old tire swing. It was plenty of fun too.

Others might have built “forts” or started secret clubs with some of their best friends. Just the time you spent with your friends is a treasured memory to most of us.

Our lifestyle sure was different back in the day, before computers, the internet and video games.

Going outside to play was great for our physical and mental health.

And I do believe that we are better for it.

Until next time.

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)