I was reading an article in a nostalgia magazine (National Trust for Historic Preservation) about road trips that families took in the '60s and '70s and how everyone has a story about staying in one of the many roadside motels during that time.
I can still smell the hot summery chlorine of the pool and feel the rough patches of warm cement under my toes. I could swim and splash and dive in a pool for hours, until my shoulders turned pink and my fingers wrinkled. You could also sit by the pool and wave at passing convertibles along the 2-way highway, or do the elbow pump at semis to get them to blast their horns. And they always would. (I still have a fondness for truckers even today).
So then I got to thinking about riding in the car itself. My brother and I would roughhouse and tumble and tease each other and play "see it" games and laugh and shout until Mom and/or Dad said, "Enough. You're bothering your Mother/Father." To their immense credit, I don't remember them shushing us all that much, but I'm sure they snapped a time or two.
And then it hit me: Kids are obese nowadays because they are rigidly pressed in car seats or belts, from the second of leaving utero, disallowing them from any significant movement whatsoever. They perch, poor things, strait-jacketed like Hannibal Lecter--maybe the regs require muzzles too?
Gad.
It seems that kids are physically restrained and forbidden from developing an iota of muscle tone until the first soccer whistle blows.
By then, it's too late.
Of course, I can't recommend eliminating all of the car safety features that we have now. Cars used to be steel fortresses, able to withstand taps and nudges with nary a scratch to show. Anything less than an 18-wheeler barreling down full speed toward you, would barely evoke a sigh out of the old Olds. Cars now are made of little more than corrugated cardboard with a little plastic thrown in for looks. And folks drive like they're batty, unfocused, preoccupied---and slamming into things willy-nilly.
So the li'l fellers must remain entombed.
OK, I didn't say I had a solution for the obesity, just the reason. Every Eureka moment can't make me Archimedes.
I know! Wrap hand and leg weights around 'em and have 'em do reps while they're packed in the car. Just be sure to remove the weights before the kids jump in the pool.
O_o
