An Open Letter to Today’s Kids on How to Have Fun

Do today's kids really know how good they have it? Yes, because grown ups keep telling them all the time.

But us "old timers" really didn't have it so bad when we were young.

Sure, we grew up without instant access to everything. We had to wait longer, travel farther and save up money to do many of the fun things that have long ago disappeared.

And every summer we were always told to "go outside" and "find something to do".

So how much fun did we really have? Plenty.

As kids, we'd go fishing at the crack of dawn, casting our lines off bridges into the river. Catching frogs was also a fun way to kill some time.

We hung around playgrounds and dusty baseball diamonds and played in pick-up games with the other neighborhood kids. Games were called due to darkness or because the kid with the ball and bat had to go home for dinner.

I recall riding my bike everywhere - we were gone all damn day and well into the night. We weren't late until the streetlights were on. We'd put baseball cards in the spokes to announce our arrival as we rode down the tree lined streets.

In the evening we would catch fireflies in jars. We played "Ghosts in the Graveyard" "Red Rover" and "Ding Dong Ditch" and tried to pair up with the cutest girls.

We had overnight camp outs in the backyard, sometimes with makeshift tents made from mom's old bedsheets and clothes line.

So we didn't need smart phones, snap chats or x-boxes. But don't take my word for it...try it yourself:

Unplug your devices for a weekend. Go outside. Ride your bike or just run around.

Don't smirk, even if that sounds like the same advice our parents gave us!