Apr 25-06

Past-E-Mail: Cam Notes - 2006: April: Apr 25-06
Construction crew    ...scroll down to share comments
Photo by Frank Anderson


By
Mary Drew at Pasty Central (Mdrew) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 06:35 am:

Dump trucks, shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozer, pails and sand... everything a good construction crew needs to get busy! This crew was caught "hard at play" by Frank Anderson, who must have snuck up on them quietly, since they don't seem to be aware they're on candid 'Pasty Cam' camera. Of course on every construction job there's always a foreman, the person in charge. My guess is it's the little guy, in the light blue shirt, just walking off the back of the sand pile. He just gave the order to get back to work and now he's going to sit on one of those big rocks to keep an eye on the project. Good, clean, Upper Michigan fun! Well, maybe not so clean, but that's what washing machines are for. :->


By Mr. Bill (Mrbill) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 06:55 am:

Simple pleasures, no battery required.


By anna swiniuchowski (Abswini) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 06:55 am:

this is a great picture of what more kids need to be doing with their time! I wonder if the sand was put here for them, or part of another major project. Hmmmm......the cost of sand vs. the cost of running a TV or video game. The benefits?....priceless. Imgination like this IS priceless!!! Congratulations to their parents on this 'project'!


By Margaret, Amarillo TX (Margaret) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 07:02 am:

You are so right Abswini! What I'd give for a sand pile down here that wouldn't blow away.


By Deb S. (Usedtobeayooper) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 07:06 am:

Ya know, these kids are having a blast. I watched my grandkids for 5 years before they started kindergarten and they just did NOT like to play in the sand. They loved to be outside (of course they were afraid of bugs---what's wrong with kids today? It's not like bugs are snakes or anything!) but they hardly ever played in the sandbox. And I had some pretty darned expensive sand as I hauled it straight from the shores of Little Traverse. I wanted them to be able to have the same sand to play in as I did but they'd only play there if I'd go sit there and play with them. I finally gave up. I would like to go over there and just run my fingers through the sand. Brought me back home for a while. Thanks guys for the great shot!


By kosk in Toronto (Koskintoronto) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 07:55 am:

Play like this just doesn't happen in big
cities--at least not for the kids in my class.
Whenever they recount their evening or
weekend activities, they almost never mention
having played outside. Unstructured play
seems hard to come by these days. What
they talk about is tv shows and video games
and the rare organized activity--like swimming
lessons. It makes recess and before school
time on the playground truly precious. Their
only outdoor play time.


By Capt. Paul (Eclogite) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 08:16 am:

Looks like those kids are having the time of their lives. It's just a shame that video games have replaced for many the simple fun one can have with just a pile of sand. Being a geologist I still get to play outside, on everything from high mountains to active volcanoes to "big" sand piles (a.k.a., dunes). So does this still make me a kid or one at heart??

Yes Mary, the little guy at the back of the pile is definitely the foreman; you can tell by the coffee in hand, lol. But it's sure not a government crew; too many workers!! ;-)


By JARMO ITÄNIEMI (Japei) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 08:16 am:

So nice picture FRANK!!!
Than just our in court-yard here Finland.. .


By Brita Haapala (Britach) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 08:26 am:

The dead giveaway that it's not a government crew is that they're all working! Except, of course, the foreman. :)


By JOHN AND ANNE KENTUCKY (Username) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 08:35 am:

Kosk,I saw your post stating that play like this does not happen in the big city. We live in a very small town,and most of the kids still play inside.Part of me blames the parents,maybe they are over protective. Maybe it is just easier to keep an eye on them inside.Most kids here all have a farm to run around on,but they dont.It is also sad to see how many kids are overweight these days.I bet a pile of sand is much cheaper than a playground full of equipment,looks like more fun too.


By Dr. Nat in Texas (Drnat) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 09:09 am:

When I was younger I used to love playing in the sand. I'd use pebbles and sand to try to dam little creeks flowing into the lake or the ocean and build levees around them. My dad called the game "Army Corps of Engineers." My dams and levees never worked for long, the creeks always won. But it sure was fun and kept me out of trouble.


By JanieT (Bobbysgirl) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 09:25 am:

When my brothers and sisters and I were growing up, our dad owned a sandblasting, painting and decorating company and farmed, the sand he used to sandblast was silicon(sp?) white and very fine sand mined out of north-east Iowa, the used white sand was piled up to make for our sandpiles. A lot of fun times in those sandpiles!


By Capt. Paul (Eclogite) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 10:10 am:

"My dad called the game "Army Corps of Engineers." My dams and levees never worked for long, the creeks always won.........."

Case in point: the little creek that flows past calumet waterworks park!! Just like the real COE, their structures never work for long either :P


By Jim Nicholas (Jimn) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 11:03 am:

I remember as a child,( 1 of 8 ) boys, we didn't have a lot for toys at Christmas, but we had each other to play with. We would get little wooden cars to use in the dirt out back. The neighbor boy next door who got tons of stuff at Christmas, being an only child, would come over to our yard and play with us and our inexpencive toy. GO FIGURE HEY.


By Charles in Adrian (Charlesinadrian) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 11:05 am:

I remember going to the shoreline of Lake Michigan in
Manistique when I was little in the 1940s. The water's edge was
so thick with piles of dirty sawdust that it made the idea of
playing in the sand there pretty gross. I suspect other sawmill
towns were similar. I wonder what shorelines were like in the
Copper Country when the mines were still going.


By stix (Stixoutwest) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 11:17 am:

Now wait a minute, kids still play outside in the city too!!!! In our neighborhood parents will put out orange cones to warn cars that kids are playing. The yards are so small and closed in that the street (not a major one!!) becomes the yard/playground from time-to-time. Never thought about putting cones out to slow down cars but I think it's a great idea. I love to see the kids playing T-ball or riding trikes, and the parents close by!!


By Charles in Adrian (Charlesinadrian) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 11:31 am:

In spite of the risk of becoming a bore, I want to mention a
pioneer game that one of our pioneer children in Adrian wrote
about in the 1920s when recalling his childhood here in the
1840s. He called it "fire ball," and here is his description of the
game. "In this game it was customary to choose sides of ten
each... For this game balls of cotton twine as large in size as a
cocoanut were used. These were loosely wound and stitched
through and through so they would not unravel, then soaked for
a day in turpentine. It was played after dark, the two sides
throwing the lighted balls at the opposing side until enough
were knocked hors de combat to award a victory."

This was a game for young men -- not for children. Maybe
that explains why the country took to the new game of baseball
soon afterwards. Anything must have seemed better than fire
ball.


By Erica - Florida Keys (Erica) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 11:46 am:

This picture takes me back to our early summers on Duck Key. My twin boys were about 4 then.It was such a quiet island I could send them out in the morning and they would build roads,plant trees(twigs)and build a real community by lunch time. We had no near neighbors then and we were usually by ourselves all summer. In the ensuing years they took up diving and snorkling and collecting treasures from the ocean.
Thanks for the memories today's picture evokes!


By Kathyrn Laughlin (Kathyl) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 11:55 am:

Hi
DebS, you said your grandkids had no interest in playing in sand. My niece got her first exposure to the joys of sand up north on our beach. She loved it--you don't just have sand, you have water, seagull feathers & stones as well as the various man-made sand toys. Downstate, all she has is a sandbox and sand toys but she still enjoys it.

Incidentally, I don't think the kid in the blue shirt is the foreman but rather a "new hire" that nobody's taken the time to train ;>)


By Deb S. (Usedtobeayooper) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 12:34 pm:

Kathryn, My grandkids actually do play in the sand when they go UP north to their grandparents cabin. However, they would not play in the sandbox and I don't know why. The sand was great as I hauled it out here from the UP. My kids loved playing in the sand. I have 4 kids and the youngest is 10 years younger than my 3rd child. I was so cautious with him it was ridiculous. When he was about 2 there was a child taken off of his bike on his way home with 2 friends (he was not alone) and they have never found him. It was just too close to home for me. So I watched him like a hawk. That is half the problem these days, the other half is the video games and TV. But parents have to be wary of letting their children play too far from home. It's a downright shame! My older kids were out til dark if not past dark. Things were still relatively safe. It's a different world we live in now. Our parents didn't usually know for sure where we were and the only things they had to worry about is whether or not we fell off of our bikes or something. Now parents have to worry about their children falling off the face of the earth. It's sad.


By Mary Lou Curtin (Marylou) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 01:14 pm:

..The blond girl in the pink jacket, is the Boss!!...you can tell she is telling the guy in the red sweatshirt to hurry up and cut out the fooling around because she has to shovel all that dirt.


By David Hiltunen (Davidcorrytontn) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 01:21 pm:

The young kid's down here in Tennessee play outside in the red clay sand all year long.Rope and tires hanging from trees with forts. Yards full of bikes,wagons,basketballs,footballs,ect.that end up on the street to avoide along with the kids.10 mph.speed limit that is observed in trailer parks.(One thing here in TN. a Tornado or a Divorce,someone is going to lose a trailer)All joking aside the children have fun around these parts of the hills,not much flatland to play on.


By David Hiltunen (Davidcorrytontn) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 01:49 pm:

I see the large propane tank in the background.I remember having to keep a path open in the snow so the Ala gas-truck man could find the one we had.


By Capt. Paul (Eclogite) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 01:52 pm:

It really doesn't matter who is in charge. If OSHA came on an inspection, they'd all be fined for improper safety equipment!! ;-)


By Justin Johnson (Tinksno) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 01:56 pm:

I like Capt Paul response - how funny and true
I still have a sand box just my toys got bigger


By maija in Commerce Township (Maija) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 02:23 pm:

kids play outside here too, and we're really part of extended Motown. They play basketball, soccer, football, and catch. They ride bikes, rollerblade, and skateboard. There are usually chalk games, drawings, and messages drawn on the sidewalks. One neighbor has a whole sand construction site going under his huge pine. You see teenagers walking around in groups or socializing on someone's porch or driveway. Most of the parents are allowing them to have the run of the subdivision which is big. Almost all the kids have cellphones! You'll also see kids doing lawn work, shoveling, raking, gardening etc.

I recently saw an interview with a high school teacher who was finally retiring after 50 something years. She was asked how kids are different now. Her answer: "They aren't."


By kosk in Toronto (Koskintoronto) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 05:17 pm:

Maija--

Sounds like a wonderful, healthy
neighborhood.


By Just me (Jaby) on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 09:31 pm:

I especially enjoyed today's picture. It brought back memories of when my boys were little.


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