Much of my childhood revolved around my grandmother's home in Clementon, NJ. She lived at the end of a dead end street and within a few feet of her door laid a magical land that included little people, a witch's home and an area where robots were made near a lake.

While obviously all of these things were not real (they were though to my young mind as well as the minds of my siblings and cousin), there will real things about the woods that were just as magical. For example, Al Capone had one his many hideouts deep in the woods which is still a mansion of sorts to this day and as recently as my teen years, was occupied by what what most consider to be mafia. One of the most exclusive golf courses in the world is also deep in the woods were the very wealthy or famous were brought in by helicopter. It is a place that includes real names like "Spider's Cover" and "Apple Lake" and some of the best sledding hills I ever experienced including "Wiggly Waggly" and "Suicide 1 & 2." The train that past through the woods carried green glass marbles that would be melted down to make various glass objects and as you walked along the tracks, you could sometimes come away with a bag full of them.

Since my grandmother passed away close to 8 years ago, I have not been back in those woods. My own boys have never been down there nor have seen or experienced much of the magic I did as a child. Today, it is so easy to stay indoors with video games and TVs. When we do go outside, we tend to go to well-laid out public parks with nice landscaping and safe play ground equipment. The wild and the unpredictable is not experienced much by my boys like it was for me.

I thank God for places that are around the area I live, like old 82 (which my boys refer to as "Adventure Highway") in which I can introduce some of those things to my kids.
And as I think about what is lost in the midst of our world, I intend to do more of these things this Spring. I want to recapture that forgotten time and set the stage for my kids to experience them in their own way. I will take them to more places that are unexpected and wild. I will even take them for at least one trip down my grandmother's woods in NJ. And if I am honest about it all, it won't just be for them.

I am so, so thankful for the memories I have from those woods. I am hoping that I will not find them to be overcome by developments.