When Kids Could Play Outside
by
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As I approach the bottom couple of steps I notice that the front door is wide open, not only letting in the noise but the warm yellow sunlight which seeping into the hallway & the unmistakable smell of summer in the Cynon valley. As I wearily reach the bottom of the stairs, I peer into the living room & notice my young brother sitting only a few inches away television screen, transfixed in the children’s show Pipkins as a flea ridden old hare named Hartley chases around a monkey named Topov, I hear my mother shout from the kitchen Glenn, Glenn don’t sit so close to the television or you’ll have square eyes. After a few seconds I shake my head in disbelief & gingerly approach the front door & peer out on a wonderful new world, a world that time had long forgotten. My dog Kim, a large Collie is lying just outside the front door in the early morning sunshine she glances up as if to say welcome home, what took you so long, then lowers her head back onto her front paws. There are only a handful of cars in the street & nearly every front door seems to be open or ajar, gangs of boys are playing football in the subway entrance while children of all ages are riding their push bikes & scooters up & down the street. Groups of girls are skipping in the middle of the road as others are chasing each other around playing touch, three young girls have chalked numbers & boxes onto the pavement & are throwing stones into the squares then hopping up & down on their graffiti while two older boys are sat quietly playing marbles in the gutter, while another two girls are bouncing up & down on orange space hoppers. Three old women have gone to the trouble of carrying their wooden dining chairs out into the street & are sitting in the sunshine supervising the activities like lifeguards on watch at the local swimming pool, the street seem to be a hive of activity, laughter & fun. The energy, the sound, the smell, is exhilarating as I stand there silently savouring every minute, frightened that it could be taken away from me at anytime, I was home & this had been the best period of time in my life, maybe I was in heaven.
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About the Book
Tom, a forty-year-old man lies dying in a forest but as he takes his final breath, gets
re-born in the 1970's as an eight-year-old boy, who is given the chance to
re-live his life.
This true and controversial account of a young boy's journey through his formative years
transports you back to a time when playing outside in the South Wales Valley
had few rules or restriction and was an education in its own right.
When kids could play outside is written about an era full of fun, freedom, pranks, competitiveness,
danger and discovery.
This is a must read for anyone who was lucky enough to have grown up in the 1970's and discovered who
you were without the help of today's technology.
About the Author
When kids "could" play outside is Tom Evans controversial first novel which is a true account of a young Tom growing up in a small mining village in South Wales, he has already started work on his second book, When coal was Mined, which is again based on the true story of his father starting work at the tender age of fifteen in the South Wales mines in the mid to late 50's. He was brought up and educated in Mountain ash, Mid-Glamorgan then moved to Witney, Oxfordshire, England. For the past twenty five years Tom has worked in manufacturing after training as a work study engineer with Japanese giants Hitachi back in the 80's. Tom has been happily married to Deborah his high school sweet heart for over twenty five years they have three wonderful but sometimes demanding children, Curtis, Sadie & Tayah. Tom decided to write When kids "could" play outside after noticing just how much fun & freedom the young generation of today have been deprived of.