Campbellsburg: A walk down memory lane

I really try not to think of myself as old but as hard as it is not too, when I think back to where and how my childhood friends and I lived it makes realize just how different the world really was. Growing up in the small town of Cambellsburg, Ky, small might actually be an overstatement, was a great place to live and grow up as a kid. Especially in the neighborhood I grew up in, for so many years my mother and I live in a two story apartment which in today's world would be called a condo, it was just the two of us, yet with all the other kids in the neighborhood always being in and out it never felt that way. In those days parents would actually look out for other peoples children and would keep a watchful eye out for any potential danger which seemed back then there was none, if there was we weren't hearing about it like you do today.

Summertime for us as kids in those days were long, and always full of fun and adventure, it always involved us being outside, playing outside is what we did, there weren't many other options and truthfully as much fun as we had doing it I don't think we minded one bit. At ten years old we used to ride our bikes from Campbellsburg to Sulphur Damn I don't know the exact distance but if I had to take an educated guess I would have to say it had to have been at least ten or fifteen miles round trip, well out of yelling distance from our mothers. Way out of sight, and what makes this so shocking to me is that there is absolutely no way I would let my kids today be outta my sight that far that long at that age. When we were kids we were sent outside after breakfast and the only rule we had was we had to be in yelling distance at lunch and we had to be in the house before the street lights came on. Back then there was no cell phones that parents could call all they had was their lungs and voices, funny how you can hear your mother calling from so far away.

Backyard football and baseball games were always some of our favorites and we used to play some very intense football games at some nice folks house named the orem's and if you lived there and ever played there you know exactly where I am talking about. The games there were so good and intense that these folks on Sundays would invite their friends over bring out lawn chairs post up and watch us play for hours. In the summer evenings we would have massive games of fox and hounds that had incredible boundaries and even longer chases these games would go on for hours as well again way out of sight from our parents.

Being outside all day in the Summer in Kentucky can be brutal but back then we never had no bottled water we would drink out of the nearest water hose we could find, sometimes not even asking for permission from the house we were doing it at. It was not uncommon for other parents to feed and hydrate us as well either.

The thing about this neighborhood that I find even more fascinating is how many great friends came out of that little town, so many people that are still lifetime friends today. Sometimes I feel bad for my kids that they aren't growing up in a town like I did when I was at their age, it really helped define who I turned out to be I believe and I'm sure some of my friends would agree with that as well. Life back then seemed a lot slower, a lot less complex and definitely safer. Simplicity is something that you normally don't think of being something you would miss, but I have to say I miss those days.

Life was so much simpler then, and not just because we were kids not having any real responsibilities but it was also easier for our parents as well, for them the evils of the world were alot less plentiful, far fewer ways back then your children could be in danger. Now days parents have to worry about cell phones, inter-net all ways today that your kids can be potentially harmed or in danger, parenting today is alot more challenging. So many things today that we have to watch out for and be leery of, parents today have to be much more cautious about where are children go, and I don't know too many parents today that would let their kids play outside for hours at a time out of sight. The world today is a much different place, time has really affected how we as parents parent.

Looking back at those days I really miss playing outside, having no worries other than trying to find enough people to get a backyard football game together. I miss simple the world was then, I miss how much safer the world was back then, I miss my childhood friends, I miss that small town in Campbellsburg, Ky, but most of all...........I miss my youth.