Nancy Meyer ('56) took off on an anonymous Internet floater decrying the highly structured and largely electronic days of kids in the 21st Century and what it means for America. Whatever your own conclusions, Nancy's e mail is a good summary of how things were for many of us.  Here's a piece, quoted with her permission:

We all enjoyed growing up in those days with a  freer lifestyle. The kids these days don't have that. They are all caught up in their computer games and rarely play outside as a group. We used to make up our own games and have fun doing it. That wouldn't make it today. I can remember making our own golf course in the neighbors front lawn. We used all my dad's paint cans and sunk them into the ground. Made our own golf clubs. We had a grand time until their dad came home from work and saw it. Then we decided to make a slide in my back yard since we had a large steep hill. We took my dad's new planks of wood and ran them down the hill. Then when we didn't slide too well we went inside and got my mother's can of Crisco and greased the wood. What a mess that was with the whole neighborhood covered with grease and dirt from when we landed. Then we decided to dig a large hole in the back yard and line it with my dad's boat tarps before filling it with water.

Another disaster when my dad came home and found all the neighborhood dogs in the 'pool'. It took us a while to fill that hole back in.

You can't say that we were not innovative. A group of us packed a sandwich for lunch and rode our bikes over to Oyster Bay. Another time up Glen Cove Rd. past where the L.I.E. [Long Island Expressway] was later built. We made it home in time  for supper sound and safe, luckily.

Everything was so much different growing up in the 50's. I'm glad to have been a part of it. Things are not as easy or safe these days. I miss those carefree, fun days. Anyway, how did we survive? Thankfully most of us did.