Understanding Play Dates

When did the term 'Play Date' come on the scene? It has the feeling of contrived friendship to me. Maybe it's something that came about when parent's became aware of bad people who roam the streets preying on little kids. I wanted to see my grandson last Saturday but was informed I should come later in the afternoon because he had a 'play date'. I never had one of those. We'd tell our parent's we were going over to Jude's to mess around. Sometimes we'd walk out the door with no plan at all and end up at Jude's. A guy could see all kinds of nifty things when he was eight or nine. You know these. Those distractions that made the ten minute walk into a forty minute one. Early on in the Fifties homes were being built at a record pace. Big shovels would come in and dig out a basement then leave the dirt piled high around the outside. I was a post World War II baby. I can't relate to the war because I wasn't born until five months after it ended. Even so, we learned and heard and knew about the Germans and the Japs. Know what was fun? Being at that newly dug home site and lying up next to a huge mound. Then grabbing a dirt clod about the size of a hand grenade and throwing it as far as was humanly possible for a kid my age. When the clod hit we'd make an explosian sound. I wiped out more Nazis that way. When I finally did arrive at Jude's we didn't have anything planned. Kid's today have on paper activities. We'd go outside and make do with whatever was around. Jude might say, "Wanna start a fire". I matter of factly answer, "okay", then we'd go into the alley, pile junk onto a heap and light it. At the end of our sixth grade year we threw in all of our books and papers we'd saved. If we found a dead bird we'd throw that on the fire, too. When I was six I lived across the alley from Tom Sellers. He was a couple of years older than I but he had neat stuff. His dad was in the war and afterwards became a policeman. It was a big deal to see a kid's dad wearing a pistol. Anyway, when his dad came home from the war he brought a couple of rifles and other souvenirs. Does anyone play war today? We did it all the time. It was always the Germans against the Americans. The nifty thing about being an American was you never died. If you were a German you knew you were going to get shot and when you were it was a big deal. The bullet(s) would pierce you body and you had to dramatically fall over tree stumps or wheelbarrows and at the end scream out in agony. But you were only dead for a few seconds because you knew the next time you were an American. Do kids on play dates play war? I think it'd be fun to wipe out twenty or thirty Taliban every day. Kids do a lot of art work today. The only time I did art was on Friday afternoon in school. I was a horrible artist but I knew a ton about world affairs. When I was in kindergarten I visited Sacred Heart. One of the nuns asked me a question about the Middle East. I promptly answered, 'Kalestine'. Pretty good for a five year old. Eveyone laughed. My art projects involved making a circle and calling it the earth. I'd make sure I'd put in the United States in a prominent position then off to the right I'd write, 'Red China'. Even in 1952 there was an awareness of the world. Maybe play date means an organized get together. In the old days we went out and played baseball. There wasn't an adult in site. We'd play football in Mike Culver's back yard. If it was only the two of us we'd play slow-motion football. That was exactly what it was. One guy ran in slo-mo and the other had to touch him doing the same method. While I'm on the subject of Mike Culver: He lived on a lot right next to the Chicago and Northwestern railroad tracks. There must have been thirty trains go by his house on a daily basis. Never once can I remember his mom, Fern, saying, "don't go near the trains". Shoot! As soon as one came by we'd grab rocks and throw them at freight cars but only to practice our baseball pitching motion. When I was a kid a had a zillion pets. I had chickens until I got tired of them then lopped off their heads and cleaned 'em for dinner. I had rabbits but, SOMEHOW, one got in a cage with another and, SOMEHOW, little baby rabbits came along. I had more dogs that a kennel. Today kids are allergic to most mammals so they get a fish. When I was young fish were called, 'bait'. That's about it for this jaunt down memory lane. It's fun for me. I hope my grandkids look back with the same good memories even though they might have to say, "Tommy, remember that time we had a play date"? Sounds silly, doesn't it?