Today's kids don't play where we used to

Fifty years ago, cars needed to be cautious driving though Long Island neighborhoods. Posted alongside the curbs of many of these suburban streets were yellow, diamond-shaped signs cautioning drivers about “Children at Play.” Those behind the wheel were to slow down and prepare to stop if necessary.

As I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, most of my leisure time was spent on the street in front of my ranch-style house. Like most families then, Mom was a homemaker and Dad worked outside the house.

We were a typical one-car family. My dad was a salesman, and he drove the maroon-and-white 1955 Chevy to the city daily. Without weekday transportation and dependent upon a variable income, my family could not enroll me in Girl Scouts or summer camps. Playing in the streets seemed to be my only option.

Boys played running games such as a version of baseball and tag, and girls, like me, jumped rope and hopscotched in the streets. Playgrounds and schoolyards were too far away. We employed oral safety warnings when vehicles suddenly approached. “Car coming!” was a shout regularly heard on the paved streets.

The end of playtime was determined by our mothers calling for dinner or by the vanishing sunlight, or both.

It was only during winter that the activities moved from the streets to front yards and backyards for building snowmen — by girls and boys — or making snow angels. Some boys preferred throwing snowballs at girls and each other.

Like my girlfriends and me, my daughters, born in the 1980s, spent their early childhood after school jumping rope and hopscotching in the street.

Approaching their teenage years in the 1990s, our girls switched from the streets to sitting on a curb listening to singers like Jewel on their Sony Discman.

My kids frequently used streets instead of sidewalks for biking to friends’ houses and other destinations. In winter, though, snowbanks made it a challenge to go where they wanted. I’m confident that those “Children at Play” signs helped prevent accidents.

By 1999, my older daughter, Andrea, had obtained her driver’s license and with one dollar purchased her father’s 1992 maroon Ford Taurus station wagon. With new mobility, she became more active as a member of the Island Trees High School Key Club. Andrea was happy to drive her younger sister, Gloria, to music and singing sessions after school.

Nowadays, to afford a family and a home on Long Island usually requires both parents to work. It helps pay for those after-school activities. My grandson, 8, has played soccer and my granddaughter, 7, was enrolled in gymnastics.

Last summer, both grandchildren played softball organized by their elementary school. Whether at a gym facility or a school’s soccer or baseball field, these places weren’t near their front yards.

My grandkids may not be playing with their neighbors, but these groups do help them develop socialization skills and make new friends.

Times change, and the streets no longer act as playgrounds. Cars have been known to race through without acknowledging stop signs. Most drivers don’t even slow down, and they seem to ignore the seemingly outdated signs warning “Children at Play.”

Most neighborhood streets, now frequented by joggers, dogwalkers and parents with strollers, are no longer play areas for children.

Reader Carol Bergman lives in Levittown.