THE FIRST SIGNS OF TROUBLE presented themselves several


years ago during a visit to a small farm in Northern California.


As we rounded the fence, clutching our scraps of wilted lettuce to feed the goats, I saw several families with kids as young as ours marching out of the woods that adjoined the farm. Cheeks ruddy and hair mussed, the children wore backpacks stuffed with overnight gear and walked with confidence. Kids who camp, I thought, feeling twin pangs of guilt and envy. My own children’s experience with the great outdoors consisted of playing in the two-car parking space behind our Boston townhouse, helping me weed our postage- stamp-sized garden out front, and walking to the play- ground five blocks away. Truth be told, they were growing up without the hours of wild abandon I’d experienced every day of my suburban Connecticut childhood, run- ning, playing, and exploring with friends until our moth- ers called us home for dinner. My kids spent their days at home, in school, or participating in organized extracur- ricular activities.


32 · LAND&PEOPLE · FALL/WINTER 2013


And though they were learning to read a subway map, give spare change to the homeless, and cultivate an urbanite’s blank, “Don’t mess with me” stare, their lack of familiarity with greener pastures made them seem like tourists in nature. Those camping kids were the opposite: so self-com- posed they looked like they could start a fire, pitch a tent, or catch a fish. They looked—how do I put this?—like they could kick our city kids’ subway-riding, graffiti-admiring, townhouse-living butts. As if to prove my point, as the camping kids tromped down the path beside us, my four- year-old daughter tentatively approached the farm pen, held out her lettuce, and called, “Here, cow!” “Sweetie,” I said gently, “that’s a goat.” “Moooo!” yelled my daughter, undaunted, as the goat’s tongue darted in and out to take the lettuce from her hand. I had to wonder: What else were my city kids missing?


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