The Southwest Voice

larger view larger view larger view larger view

When I was a kid, I remember getting up early on a Saturday morning before my parents were out of bed, making a quick bowl of cereal, then hitting the door to play!  And play I did! You see, I was 10 years old in 1975 — that was when you could do that.  All the kids did. We ran to the park just down the street, played ball, played pirates, and even ran a successful business (lemonade stand). We’d make up games or catch frogs. We checked in with Mom sometime during the day. (No, we didn’t call her on our cell phones ... uh, there were no cell phones!) We had to run home in the middle of our fun or call her from a friend’s house we were playing in just to let her know we were still alive. Small price to pay, because after that call we were good till the sun went down. Yeah, that’s right — when the streetlights came on. We knew we’d better head on home and prepare for the same tomorrow. Ah yes, those were the good ol’ days.

Cut to now. On any given weekend you might find a few kids who are allowed to roam free and play anywhere, but not in my house. My kids pretty much stay indoors playing PlayStation 3, or PSP, or __________ (enter latest gadget here). Not to say that it isn’t controlled — we do monitor their time spent on computer games and we do get together to play a board game or two on occasion, but it’s certainly a different kind of playground they play on, or should I say “in.” Shooting lasers at the villain, conquering the latest racing game, or rockin’ out with the virtual band they’ve assembled — it’s amazing. Heck, they can even box a guy who’s halfway around the world when they enter the online mode of their games!

Oh, we have our park time, but it’s usually a family outing. Do people even let their kids go anywhere alone anymore? It’s a shame that the reality of predators roaming the streets makes you think twice before letting kids go anywhere alone anymore.

But the good times like we used to have in those old memories are back ... kind of. You see, I am the community relations manager at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on California Avenue, and we have a wonderful new event that allows us to take that nostalgic trip back to our youth — and we get to bring our kids! Well, actually, it’s the kids who get to take the “trip.” We get the joy of watching them doing something innocent, like deciphering a secret code or learning a new coin trick, while making new friends at our latest children’s event!

“The Dangerous Book for Boys” is a book written by two brothers, Conn and Hal Iggulden. They take a stab at introducing our children to things we forgot to teach them ourselves, such as how to make a coin disappear, how to tie a fancy knot, how to train your dog to sit and roll over, even how to create a treasure map!

We had our first meeting on Feb. 2 hosted by Bookseller and CSUB student Ryan Young with more than 90 kids (almost all boys) show up! They learned the secret hand-shake you should know and the secret password that you should mention when greeting a fellow Dangerous Boy. They won stickers and pencils and one kid even won a copy of the book!

I urge all parents of boys (between the ages of 8 and 12) to attend these meetings! They will always be on the first Saturday of the month at 2 p.m. and will always feature something cool from the book (Navajo Windtalkers, pirate knots and treasure maps, identifying insects, and learning camping skills — just to name a few!). If you have any questions about this wonderful new event, call Barnes & Noble at 631-2575.

Next meeting: Saturday, March 1!