I agree, more people need to get outside. But in the town of 4,000 that I live in you could fire a shotgun down pretty much any side walk and only thing you would hit is a hapless squirrel. The only exception is the bike trail we live near to and there you would find is people on their electric bikes pretending to be exercising, traveling through nature at about 15 miles per hour, moms or dads trying to quiet their babies, and dogs taking their owners on a walk.

When my dog takes me for a "walk" (he's a sniffer dog who spends about 5 minutes sniffing a twig, so we don't get very far) on occasion, someone will stop with their dog and we'll have a short conversation while the dogs sniff each other's butts.

When I was a kid, I'm now 83, we spent all summer out side. Breakfast, outside, lunch, outside, supper, outside. Eventually, my dad would shout "come on home" and we'd stop our hide and seek game in the dark and finally find rest. Most of the summer was without adult supervision, and we would do a lot of pretending. Building forts, going on adventures in "Spooky woods," making up plays in a make believe theater, or playing "Annie Over."

My brother and I tried to dig a hole to China once, but quit when it started to get difficult to get out of the hole.

One fall, after the half acre garden had been plowed under, my brother and I would throw dry dirt bombs toward the other. They would hid the ground and explode in a burst of dust.

Then TV drew us indoors.... And we have become afraid of outdoors. Sad.