I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  Growing up myself in suburbia in the other end of Seattle during that same time as the author, I am able to closely relate to much of what he experienced and shared in the book.  I must have watched more TV than I remember for I could have also told you the only stations we received were 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.

I agree with the author that our life growing up was a simpler life and we did much simpler things than our children experience today.  We spent so much of our time outdoors playing and creating games and activities with the other neighborhood kids.  We had to be creative and inventive to keep from being bored.

I spent a lot of time alone doing things outside and entertained myself – playing imaginary baseball games with a baseball glove; a super ball and a wall to bounce it off of; climbing high up in evergreen trees, even during high winds when the trees were swaying back and forth; shooting arrows straight up and not knowing where they were going to land!  And, I lived through it all!

I have resisted giving in to “technology” in many ways in an effort to keep our lives as simple as possible.  We didn’t have email at home until long after most people did.  We just purchased cell phones in August, 2008; we don’t have a single game that’s played on the computer, no games that are played on the TV, and it was only recently that we purchased a hand-held game (Nintendo DS Lite), and this only came about after much travailing on my part.

I remember my son recently said to me, “Dad, all you want us to do is play outside”.  Yes, that’s right!  We were camping a couple of years ago at a forested campground on a lake and we had two of our rowboats there.  We had only been at the campground about two hours when one of our boys said to me and my wife, “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do”.  After our initial outburst of laughter, I realized what a sad statement that was.

Is this due to the culture that our kids grow up in?  The fast-paced, action-packed, McDonald’s mentality (I want it and I want it now)?  Or is it our failing as parents in some way(s)?  I suspect that with our kids, it’s a result of both of these, and some other criteria.

Ok – Enough of all this…the bottom line is that I enjoyed reading this book because I could personally identify with it.  Once I began reading I couldn’t put the book down because I was so intrigued, and I’m not one who reads books very often.

John Lagerquist