I'm Bored!

Joe, your columns sometimes are really thought provoking, and this one is especially good. Especially the constructive comments by Mr. Chaney are great.

I am a senior citizen, and I thought, what did I, what did my kids do? The word bored in my house meant "I want to do chores" so when my kids were looking for something to do, I said here is the list of chores, please do one and I am sure when you have completed the chore, you will think of something productive to do. They did, and I got the bathroom cleaned, or the vacuuming done in the process.

So my first suggestion is help your parents do a chore for them, then do something for yourself.

When my kids hung out in the boring winter, they went to an arcade and played video games, they went to a batting cage and hit base balls, did indoor miniature golf. They got together with friends and played musical instruments (much to my dismay, but hey it was winter) They had people over and played board games and video games. A couple of them did art work, one made model cars. These were boy things I guess, never had girl children.

When I was a kid the world was so much different, that I think what we did was not even close to a teenager today, but I will tell you a couple of things anyway. We did things in the winter that we mostly did not do in the summer. We were mostly at home, or in other kids homes. We played ping pong, and board games, we listened to records, we played music, we went to the skating rink, we went to the movies, we went for walks, we took photographs, we collected stuff, like stamps, and baseball cards, and pictures of movie stars, and did craft things, and read. I did art work, and made crafts stuff, like scarves and hats for my young sisters. My mother taught me to knit, and sew on the sewing machine.My uncle sent me stamps from all over the world, which I collected, money too. My father spent time with my brother in the garage with the car, let my brother learn to work on the car and change the oil and taught him how to work around the house fixing the plumbing, electrical and small projects.(sometimes I got to do it too)

We did chores, so did my kids, but we also volunteered (I worked with kids doing art projects at a local "camp" strangely today it would be an "after school center"
I did that when I was 13, at 17 I was a girl scout leader
And at 35 I did both of those things again.

No one is responsible for kids entertainment, I seems to me there are far more things to do now then there used to be. A metal detector at a thrift store is $2.00 the beach and the woods in rural areas are wealthy with "finds"

Since Joe has opened up this discussion, I would like him to invite comments as to what other generations did in their spare time. (I said spare, I studied, worked around the house, and baby sat as a job.)And perhaps this generation will get some good ideas.

My favorites from 50 years ago. I still do some all of them.

Collecting glass from the beach. Sometimes I found "treasures"

Being outdoors riding bikes, we went to some really great places, miles and miles from home.

Drawing, painting, making stuff from kits. Playing and making music.

Reading.