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While my wife could no longer resist the JDOCD burning within and set off for yet another day standing around in Leicester Square in 30 degree heat being pushed and shoved by screaming teenage girls, I set off for a nostalgic trip back to my home town and surrounding villages where I had not been for a good many years. For me, a big part of such a journey was to set foot again in Epping Forest, the playground of my childhood.
I was lucky enough to be bought up a mere 30 yards or so from the edge of the forest and, as I mentioned in a recent item, not many days would pass without me walking or playing in this wondrous place. It is what I have always missed the most since leaving and was the second thing I wanted to do on this trip – after taking a look at the old house.
The boundary of my freedom as a young 7 or 8 year old was clearly defined. No further in than the small area we always called ‘Drum Maids’ although nobody seemed to know why ir bore that name. Drum Maids was a small amphitheatre shaped clearing and at one edge was a small hill that kids liked to roll down in the summer and toboggan down after snow. It obviously looked bigger when I was 7 of course. Pathways to Drum Maids were clearly defined and it was quite a highpoint so that once you got passed it you were treated to a panoramic view of the forest to the distant horizon many, many miles away. This was an enchanted place and a summer evening would not be complete without the laughter of children running around keeping the long grass at bay in the clearing.
My first problem yesterday were that the pathways, worn down and distinct in my childhood, were no longer there. In the place of the patchwork of pathways and trails were dense patches of nettles growing right up to the oak trees I used to sit under collecting up acorns and growing right up to the forest edge. When I did eventually find a way in it was still overgrown with nettles and brambles but I finally broke through and while there were still no clearly defined pathways I managed to get to where I wanted to be. Except it wasn’t there any more. The photo shows the surrounding trees beyond which was once a small clearing and a favourite place for children to play. It is now merely an overgrown tangle of bushes, nettles, brambles and is completely impenetrable. In short – it has been abandoned. Nobody comes here any more.
In fact, there was little evidence to show that many people visit this part of the forest and this is a tragedy. And for me, a great sadness. And for the kids of today an experience missing from their lives.
Sadly, it’s the same here in the US, mostly… anyone under 25 just wants to play inside with their tech toys. ‘What?!? Go OUTSIDE?!?!?”
Also, here in the US at least, poison ivy and some other vines are now growing at a much more rapid pace than in the past – a few degree temp difference and more CO2 and they really take off! So it doesn’t take too long for something to get overgrown, then no one wants the work of clearing it again…
Sorry your visit didn’t meet your expectations.
It’s a very disturbing trend even if only from the point of view of future forest husbandry.
How true! I used to play in a little “forest” as well… a plot of land that was left undisturbed by the river… it was great fun to pick up acorns, make our own slingshots, forts (yes, I was a tomboy!). Now a bank sits there.
Too bad all the kids have today are virtual experiences. Then again, with all the sickos around, I wouldn’t want my kids wandering the area anymore either.
A whole new world indeed.
Maureen´s last blog ..A Funny Thing Happened…
Maureen: I think it is the ’sickos’ that have put most parents off allowing their kids to have a normal childhood. But actually I think it is the sensationalist media that has really done this. I recall reading statistics that proportionately showed that the number of ’sickos’ hasn’t really changed but the media just loves to make a big thing when something does happen and resort to scare tactics to get a big splash. Although I will agree that more used to be jailed for longer terms than happens today.
Kids playing in groups – which is how kids play – are probably no more vulnerable today than they ever were plus, with the inevitable mobile phone in their pocket, they also have much quicker access to help should they need it.
The vast majority of child abuse, violence against children and sexual abuse of children goes on in the family home – not out on the streets.
The paranoia that is flamed by ‘tabloid’ media like the Daily Mail in the UK and Fox News in the USA is responsible for stealing normal childhood experience from vast numbers of kids and we are already seeing the result of this as the first generation of these kids reach adulthood without the experience or knowledge of how to make good partners and decent parents themselves.