The Freedom We Left Behind

Just the other day I was driving to work, and I stopped at a stop sign and I looked around and I saw about three kids, maybe 8, 9 years old, maybe 10, standing on the corner. Each of them had a parent with them, and all three kids were on their cell phones. Yeah, on their cell phone. They were waiting for the school bus to arrive. Of course, the parents were there for protection and security.

I couldn’t help it, I had to think about my own childhood growing up in Israel. When I was their age, I walked to school, and then I walked back home. Nobody walked with us, nobody followed us in a car, we didn’t have a phone in our pocket. We walked to school, went to school, and then walked home and on the way home, we might have stopped for ice cream, we might stop at a little candy store and buy something sweet. We had a few coins in our pocket and somehow that was enough.

Then we went outside. We played, we rode our bicycles, nobody wore a helmet, nobody had a waiver, nobody had a meeting about safety, and if you got hurt, you got hurt.

We built ramps out of plywood, we climbed things that we had no business climbing, we went to construction sites and jumped from the second floor straight into the pile of sand.

We drank from a garden hose, and nobody told us not to, and we walked into a friend’s house without calling first, and sometimes we stayed for dinner unannounced.

We learned to make decisions. We learned to deal with other kids. We learned what happened when you made a bad decision.

Nobody knew exactly where we were. There was no GPS, no cell phones, and no way for our parents to call us. The rule was simple: be home when the streetlights come on. Our parents trusted us to figure it out.

Sometimes we got yelled at. Every adult in the neighborhood seemed to have permission to tell you when you were doing something wrong, and somehow we learned. We learned how to get along with other kids, we learned how to make up after a fight, all on our own.

We learned how to be bored, and being bored was not a bad thing. It meant we had to figure out what to do next.

One of our favorite games was taking an old tire to the top of the hill, rolling it down, and running right next to it, smacking it left and right to keep it straight.

Today, childhood looks very different. Kids have phones, parents have GPS trackers. Their schedules, organized activities, play dates, and parents who know where their kids are almost every minute. I really understand why. The world changed, parents want to protect their kids.

Watching those children waiting for the school bus, each one holding a phone with their parents right beside them, I start thinking about how much freedom we had when we were

8 and 9 years old.

I’m not saying our childhood was safer, it wasn’t. I’m not saying everything was better, it wasn’t. But there was something about walking to school with my friends, stopping for ice cream, buying something sweet, disappearing outside for the afternoon, and knowing you had one job: be home when the streetlights come on.

Somehow, we made it. We are here. We turned out okay. Maybe not because our parents protected us from everything, maybe because they didn’t. They gave us room to figure some things out for ourselves.

I think what I miss the most is having that freedom and the solitude. I grew up in a neighborhood where you heard everything: music from my parents, music from the radio, music from different countries, different languages, different cultures. We didn’t have algorithms telling us what we should listen to. We heard a song, we liked it, even though we didn’t know the language, we remembered it.

Maybe that’s why all these years I still love music from all over the world, what we call today World Music. Because somewhere in all those sounds and languages, there is a little piece of the childhood we grew up with.

I have a lineup from all over the world: new music, old music that you’re familiar with, and everything in between. Stay with me for the next couple of hours.

Tonight’s Playlist

Track Title	Artist	Length
In My Life	The Beatles	02:27
Days We Left Behind	Paul McCartney	03:18
Waiting by the Window	monika @ carbeau	02:19
Solo Tu, Maria	Alessia Fontana	04:37
Another Day Old	Eddie Dalton	03:52
Africa Bamba	Santana	05:25
Burnt by the Sun	Sophie Solomon feat. Richard Hawley	04:30
A chi	Fausto Leali	03:24
La chanson d’Orphée	Pauline Croze	03:05
Avec le temps (Ferré Tribute)	Les Amoureux Qui Passent	04:43
No Ordinary Love	Chris Botti	06:05
Tears in Heaven	Eric Clapton	04:40
Joy Inside My Tears	Stevie Wonder	06:29
ילדות נשכחת	נורית גלרון	03:24
Let Me Try Again	Frank Sinatra	03:31
Tears on My Pillow	Aaron Neville	03:30
Capri C’est Fini	Herve Vilard	03:34
I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know	Blood, Sweat & Tears	05:56
Bird of Paradise	Snowy White	04:58
Amor Mio	Marea Salina	03:39
Neither One Of Us	Gladys Knight & the Pips	04:20
One Sweet Day	Boyz II Men & Mariah Carey	04:50
זה לא בדיוק געגוע	Arik Einstein	03:30
Make It Rain	Ed Sheeran	06:44
You Want It Darker	Leonard Cohen	04:46
Secret Diary	Guenter Haas	05:41