Remembering How To Play

Ron 0:09

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Peace Love Moto podcast. I'm your host, Ron Francis in lovely Colorado. Think back to when you were 10 years old. Do you remember that feeling when a friend knocked on the front door or called the house landline? You remember those? They called just to ask, can you come out to play? No agendas, no responsibilities, just pure fun to go out to play. Well, somewhere between growing up and paying bills and managing the daily grind, a lot of us forgot how to do that. Some of us forgot how to have fun. But today, we're gonna have fun. We'll remember how. In this episode, originally aired in 2023, we're diving deep into why playtime isn't just for kids or the neighborhood squirrels who are cutting laps in your backyard to watch. We look at the actual science of play and how a trip back to my hometown in Texas got me thinking about the magic of my childhood there, and why throwing a leg over your motorcycle might just be the most important psychological reset you can give yourself. So let's relax, take a deep breath, and let's take a ride back in time. Thank you for joining me today. When we were kids, we played. Remember? Going outside to play. My mother or dad would answer the phone, not a cell phone, of course, but a phone built into the house, and a kid on the other end of the line would typically say, Can Ronnie come out to play? Well, today you and I sometimes get a call, or more likely a text, saying, Want to go for a ride? In other words, sometimes my buddies like Martin or Brian will call and say, Hey Ron, can you come out to play? And that's an invitation to go for a ride. That's the beauty of this sport that we love, isn't it? Yes, it's transportation and a cool means of travel, but if you're like me, it's the same play that I experienced when I was a kid. When we go out for a ride, we go out to play, sometimes alone and sometimes with our friends, and that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. What a gift to be able to go out and do that. So in today's episode, we'll reminisce for a while on a mindset that maybe we don't think about as much as we ought to, especially when the responsibilities of life add up. But I'm convinced that going out to play with our motorcycles and with our buddies sounds like a whole lot of fun, and it is. Recorded in beautiful Loveling Colorado, welcome to Peace Love Moto, the podcast for motorcyclists seeking that peaceful, easy feeling as we cruise through this life together. Are you ready? Let's go.

Texas Friendship And Childhood Joy

Ron 3:35

Yes, that's where the accent comes from. I've lived here in Colorado for about 25 years now, but my roots and my Texas accent come from out there. While in McKinney, I met up at a local coffee shop with my childhood best friend. That was Roger. Roger and I met when we were nine years old in the third grade. Our chat at that little coffee shop went on for three hours. Over those three hours, we talked about a lot of things. We talked about our lives as adults, raising families, changing jobs, losing jobs, getting new jobs again, changes in careers. What really struck me, well really stuck with me, I might say, is how he answered this question. I said, Roger, what do you remember about our childhood? And wow, the floodgates opened and the memories just filled the room. We talked about the hours spent together as we were kids, going to the roller rink, going to the Texas State Fair. Such wonderful memories. It's because of friends like Roger that I had a very happy childhood. I'm convinced of that. It was people like him, even as a little kid. He was a wonderful friend. And he still is. Before the complexities and the confusions of life that sometimes come along when we become teenagers, then young adults, then get into careers and then our families, before all that as kids, Roger and I played. Roger, if you're listening, thank you, buddy. So I've always had a happy childhood because I've spent hours and hours and hours with good friends, and I spent a lot of time on my bicycle riding wheelies for blocks and blocks and blocks around the neighborhood. I could do that really well. I don't know how, but I could just do it. A man who worked at a local gas station gave me one of those little red STP stickers to put on my bike. Does anybody remember those? For those who don't know, an STP or STP was a brand of motor oil treatment. It was put on a lot of hot rods and drag races and things like that. I also attached baseball trading cards with clothespins onto the front wheel of my bicycle so it would clatter when I rode, making a sound something like what I imagined to be an engine. And as I described in an earlier episode, the magic really happened when I was about 11. Because it was at 11 years old, after seeing the Bruce Brown film called On Any Sunday, I got my first little mini bike with a real engine. And I can honestly tell you, life has never been the same.

Squirrels And The Science Of Play

Ron 6:34

So let's shift gears here and talk about squirrels. Haha, I know what you're thinking. Hang in there. I'll do my best to come to a conclusion here, so just bear with me for a few minutes. I usually get up early in the morning. I take my coffee out to our back patio, not to read, but to watch and listen. I watch the hummingbirds come to the feeders, and I watch the squirrels and the rabbits in the open space behind our home, and I just watch them play. Now, I'm certainly no squirrel expert, but since early spring, I noticed three little beady guys, little litty squirrels out there, and I assume that they're siblings, maybe little brothers and sisters. It's both amazing and hilarious how they'll chase each other around these trees at top speed, even hanging upside down. I've seen them do this, hanging upside down from branches to grab at each other as they run by. It's just hilarious. I wonder what it would sound like if we could hear those little guys laugh. That would just have to be hilarious. I know that we normally think of wildlife as always being in survival mode, with every action having a purpose in order to find food or shelter, you know, just to stay alive. But you know, I really think, like in the case of these little guys, I think they're out there just having a ball. I think they're just out there playing. I remember hearing a segment from National Public Radio some years ago about the critical importance of play in children. It was presented by a neurologist, as I recall, and she described how when children play alone with either a simple toy or even no toy at all, they'll usually talk to themselves. They'll talk right out loud. A two-way conversation coming from one developing brain. They also observed that when playing a game on a computer, children seldom, if ever, talk to themselves. The scientists described in some detail about how during that time of talking to themselves, unlike being in front of a computer, maybe, their brains are developing in ways that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. I got curious recently, and I was wondering what do the academics say in regard to the benefits of play for children. The article said this, the one I ran across. Play is especially important for children. Play helps children develop their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive skills. It also helps them to learn how to interact with each other, solve problems, and take risks. Now I know what you're saying about now. You're saying this is supposed to be a podcast about motorcycling. What are you doing talking about squirrels and children playing? Well, it's because I'm pretty sure that you and I, even as adults, need that playtime. I think that all of those elements, the physical, social, emotional, cognitive skills, can come into play for us as adults while we ride our motorcycles. And

Riding As A Daily Reset

Ron 10:04

if the weather is good, we should try to do that every day. Now I know I keep talking about my hand injury and recovery from that, and I am riding again as I described in the last episode, but it's so much more important for me now to try to ride every day, every single day, just for a little while. Maybe it's just for a few minutes after work, or maybe it's a full day's ride when I'm free, or I'm hoping to have a multi-day ride up here pretty soon. But on the average day, I try to do a loop around the foothills near our home every day. Those rides take me back to my childhood, they reduce the stress of the day, and somehow, in my mind for a little while, I'm back to the simple life of my 11-year-old self. As the conversation with my friend Roger reminded me in that long conversation in the coffee shop, that wonderful conversation, when we play, maybe we get transported back in time when we weren't aware of the complexities of life, of the dangers out there, of the news, what's happening in the world all the time, when we didn't know to worry about the monthly bills or worry about the stress of work or relationships. All that we knew was that very moment. In that very moment of innocent play, we just were right there in pretty much a perfect world.

The Challenge To Go Play

Ron 11:37

I challenge you this week to go out on your motorcycle and play. Call some of your friends if you want to, some of your riding buddies, and just say, hey, can you come out to play? See what their reaction may be. What fun you will probably have. Hey, if you enjoyed this podcast, thanks in advance for listening and for telling your friends. I enjoy making them. Until we visit again, I wish you peace and I wish you love it.