To those as sad as me, this blog title is part of a line from an ABBA song, if you know the song you may have an inkling as to what it’s about, if not read on and find out. If you know the song and have guessed, read on as well, it’s for everyone.
I grew up in a small village outside Glasgow, it was there that I played the earliest forms of video games, but not for huge lengths of time, ten minutes here, twenty minutes there not much really. Other things were of greater importance to me, Star wars toys, friends but most of all going out to play. If it was sunny, we were out playing, if it was raining, we were out playing, if it was dark, we were out playing. You get the idea and I imagine that for most of you it was exactly the same. Move forward a few years and we moved to nowhere, a house away from my friends and miles away from school, it wasn’t good, for a start I had no one to go out with. My parents bought me a Spectrum 48k and I had a new friend, we spent huge amounts of time together, every day after school and homework we would get together and conquer the universe or jungle or mansion. I was13 and I suppose I didn’t really want to face the world, I was the fat kid and through taunts and bullying I was happy to shut myself away in my bedroom, my kempston rapid fire joystick was getting waggled nightly. Forward a few years to 1988, 16 years old, taller, slimmer I re-introduced myself to the world and it was great. Music, skateboards, train rides to Glasgow all ensued, I really didn’t play games much for years, life was good and every night there was always something to do. I had a group of friends and we were always out, it was a one mile walk to the bus stop and six mile bus ride to see them but I made the journey faithfully every night for years. Games came back into my life a few years later with the Mega Drive and the PS1 but socialising always came first, ahhhh the good old days!
Twenty years on I went back to the town where I hung out, Strathaven (pronounced Straven), was my stomping ground and It hasn’t really changed much, except for one thing……where are the kids? As I walked around the streets that were once filled with the clattering of skateboard wheels, there was nothing. No people, no noise, no tomfoolery, nothing! Surely this was just an isolated occurance, wasn’t it? Nope! I went to a few of the areas where I grew up and besides for teenage drinkers hanging round the parks, there wer no children about. Had everyone been transported away by aliens? Nope, sadly (now you may all start shouting at me with this one, but bear with it) I think all the kids are inside playing games! Yes I know that we all play them and it is the reason that we are on this site but I think it is wrong that during the warm summer evenings the kids aren’t outside. I feel that they are missing out on a vital part of growing up by not being out experiencing life, a lot of the decision making processes that we learn come from life experiences, not games. Faced with a real life situation many youngsters these days just haven’t a clue what to do because they are lacking in life skills, but could get 100 frags no bother. So kids, put down the joy-pads, switch off the consoles and get your asses outside and see what you have been depriving yourselves of. Meeting people is great, looking at clouds is awesome, going to concerts is fabulous, falling off your skateboard onto blaize is amazing. There is always time to play games, I play them, I love playing them, but I also love life.
The ABBA song was “the Piper” and was about the pied piper of Hamlin, was that a clever title or what?
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