Remember the days when the extreme heat and humidity never seemed to bother you when we were all kids? Once school was out it didn’t seem to matter how hot it was, we HAD to go outside, get our friends and play.

Sure these are the days of indoor video games and I remember when Atari and other home game consoles first came out, same with video game arcades. But we still went outside to play. And we never had playdates, no…..we just went over, knocked on the front door and asked if so and so could come out to play.

My neighbor’s boys seem to always have their friends over to play basketball or some other game in the street. It’s great to hear the sounds of kids playing. In my day we played in the woods, hide and seek using the neighbor’s yards. Played spy, pretended to be a knight and use bows and arrows and handmade armor and swords, and of course riding our bikes to go to the park.

Of course we played inside to play board games, watch Mtv when there were actually music videos and play with toys.

I used to spend whole days in our local library. I would ride my bike, grab a bunch of books and sit in the air conditioning and read. Miss Snow, our Librarian, would let me know when my mom needed me to come home. No cell phones needed, mom knew where I was and simply called.

Remember going over to a friend’s house, especially if they had a pool? I was fortunate to belong to a pool club in town, but if my friends did anything water related I was there. I learned how to swim at a very young age at the Fort Dix’s indoor pool and continued my lessons at the Southgate pool by Dr. Fisher in Bordentown Township, NJ. She and her program are a fixture here in Bordentown and my daughter started her lessons and will continue this year. We are still members at the same pool club that I grew up going to.

So this year, when it’s hot, let the kids get some fresh air, be barefoot and pretend to be whoever or whatever they want. Video games, iPads, etc., all have their places. Same with tv and movies, but all in moderation.