It's a common observance that you don't see children playing outside much anymore. Overscheduled free time is often blamed, as the calendar fills with soccer/dance/violin lessons. But another factor may be the lack of critical mass of neighbourhood children. On the street where I grew up, four kids was considered a small family and there were about thirty-five youngsters within the clutch of houses to either side of us. As my mom reminded us on Sunday, we even organized our own version of the 1977 Canada Summer Games, complete with track and field programs, trophies; as the coup de grace we persuaded one dauntless mother to put a tie on her head and impersonate Mayor Dorothy Wyatt and hand out the prizes.

(Image: typepad.com.)