Yesterday it was sunny, right about 30 degrees and there was 3-4” of snow on the ground. I decided to take the kids sledding and on the way to our normal hill on a whim I changed directions and drove back to the house I grew up in - the house my folks built and lived in for over 25 years. It’s funny in a sad way - the house is only about a mile and a half away from where I live now, but it’s been 16 years since I’ve been there.

The back yard has a really nice sledding hill - long with multiple drops but not so steep as to be dangerous. You just gotta stop before going in the creek…

I knocked on the door, introduced myself to the owner and asked if I could take my kids sledding in the back yard.  She didn’t hesitate to say yes.

The kids and I dragged our sleds and Snurfers around back and I was shocked to see the hill was unblemished - even though it was the middle of the afternoon there was not a single track. I had to laugh—as a kid we used to get frustrated because it seemed like no matter how early we got up some other neighborhood kids were up earlier and had used up all of “our snow”.

We were out there for a good two hours and had a blast. But it struck me at some point - not only was the hill unused when we got there, we didn’t see another kid all afternoon. Not in this yard, or any of the others in view.  There are lots of other good sledding hills by those other houses, yet none of them had been touched.

The owner came out and chatted with us - and when I mentioned how quiet it was she said her boys were grown and gone and the other kids in the neighborhood had all grown up too.

I couldn’t believe it - surely somewhere, in one of the hundreds of homes in the immediate and bordering neighborhoods there had to be school age kids.  Years ago a few inches of fresh powder on these hills would easily draw bundled up kids out of those homes, gladly dragging a red sled down the road for 15 minutes for an afternoon of winter fun.

I’m still amazed at how deserted the neighborhood felt - have we really gotten so busy that kids don’t have time to go sledding on a Saturday afternoon?  Where have the children gone?