When I was in fourth grade my family lived in another part of Murray. We had a field next to us that we would ride our bikes in. Every once in a while dump trucks would come and dump loads of dirt that with the help of friends we would quickly turn into our own BMX track. In another corner of the field was a cement culvert with a metal grid over the top of it. We could go out there and occasionally get catfish out of it.
Next to the field were the train tracks. There were always a few railroad cars sitting there waiting to be played on. It was a time when they still had a caboose at the end of the train. Those were always fun to climb on and sit in the second level and look out over everything.
When we lived there skateboards became popular again. We rode them everywhere. To the store to get penny candy and 10 cent candy bars. To Gibsons to look at the newest toys and see mom at work. To McDonalds, Wendys or Arbys for some good food not the PB & J from home.
We would get together with the neighbor kids and play kickball, tag, hide and seek, cops and robbers, baseball and doorbell ditch a few houses after dark.
In high school our family moved to Kamas. I didn't drive yet and we lived 3 1/2 miles from town. What a drag, what a blessing. I would ride my bike a mile or so the Weber river and fish. I could get my shotgun and a box of shells and go look for rabbits. Yep, 16 years old and wandering down the road with a gun. I wonder how many police would have me in their gunsights if I were 16 and trying that today. Hiking on Hoyt's was a good past time. Learning to play basketball just so I could fit in and do things with all the other kids up there. Kamas was football, basketball, wrestling and what ever church activity they were involved in.
Those were simpler times. Now there are very few fields in the Salt Lake valley. The ones that are left won't have kids riding bikes in them. I'm not sure there are very many kids that even fish and they probably wouldn't know where to find a place to fish if they did. Empty railroad cars parked next to a subdivision doesn't happen around here anymore either. The caboose, they only exist at old train depots as tourist attractions.
Skateboards? I see more people carrying them than riding them now. Why someone would carry their transportation I'll never understand. Penny candy and 10 cent candy bars are long gone. So is Gibsons and Grand Central. McDonalds, Wenys and Arbys are all still around but even they're not the same. Too many choices and too much money for a hamburger. I see a few kids ride their bikes up and down the sidewalk but there is no kickball, no tag probably no cops and robbers.
Everything around Kamas is now posted. You can't just wonder out to a farmers field and look for rabbits anymore. You don't see kids walking down the highway with a gun cradled in their arms. Football, basketball and wrestling are still big though. That will stay the same until they do away with high school sports because they can't afford to fund it.
Those simpler times were 30 to 40 years ago. I'm sure back then our parents thought the same thing about the time they grew up in.
Be a blessing and be blessed.
