Camping and Camp Crafts

I came across a book the other day,  The Golden Book of Camping and Camp Crafts.  It was published in 1959 and I got it when I was around 8 or 9.  My happiest memories from that age and younger are all about outdoor adventures.  Whether it was playing cowboys and Indians (I was always an Indian), discovering a secret place in the woods or relaxing to the smell of fresh cut grass, I was always outdoors.  The book added new elements – dressing the part as an Indian, building forts of all descriptions (often involving a shovel and a large hole in the ground), making treasure maps, experimenting with a compass and much more.

Those tracking the situation say that today’s kids aren’t getting outdoors enough to remain healthy.  Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods quotes Paul, a fouth grader as saying:”I like to play indoors better, ’cause that’s where the electrical outlets are.”  To the eight-year-old me, that would have been a concept from a different planet.

Where do the kids you know prefer to be?