I was born in the late '70s. I grew up in a somewhat poor but nice and friendly neibourhood. Our mothers and grandmothers use to clean the street outside their houses with brooms. We kids use to play every single day in the street. We were loud and had tones of fun! Whenever a car passed through our street we use to throw the ball over it and scream and laugh and oh those were the days!!!

Those winter sundays by Stephmel

Yesterday the route I usually follow to get home from work was closed by a truck and I had to make a small detour. What I saw almost caught my breath! There were almost twenty kids in the street next to mine playing and having the same fun I used to have as a kid. Their mothers were chatting on the balcony and the smell of fresh baked food filled the street. A grandmother was feeding an egg to a small one and there were bikes and balls all over the road. The scenery amazed me. I am sure you think I am exaggerating and that there are a lot of neighbourhoods like that still left in Athens. Of course there are! But I had forgotten about them!

Katy by romanticwondersYou see, I use to think that kids today are so unlucky! They don't have time to play on the street since they have too many things they have to learn, their parents are afraid of too many cars and too many strangers on the street, not to mention kids willingly staying home with a laptop and facebook (!!!).

Well it took a small detour for me to realise that some things are still the same, some good things have not changed that much, some kids are still lucky enough to experience a friendly neighbourhood!

I 've learned that you have to change your way of doing things in order to see new or remember old forgotten images.

This is for all kids today. Hope we haven't spoiled it too much for you!

Smouts!!!