The bulleted item on the long list stood out as profound evidence to the shameful loss that most youth face nowadays.

For the last 30-plus years, I have collected memories of my youth like my mom collected buttons so she would have just the right one if a shirt or slacks was lacking a closer. Her collection was in a tin, mine is kept on paper and in an Excel spreadsheet. She had maybe 100 buttons, and I have about 800 items that inspire, inform and illuminate my writings that will some day be a book that celebrates the life and parents that I had as seen through experiences from ages 3 to 23.

As I perused the list today, adding more entries, I noticed one that could be a long-lost clue that shares insights into life of long ago like something an archaeologist might find that provides a sociologist with information about a lost culture. The culture of which I speak is youth, childhood. The entry said, “Skinned knees. Knee patches.”

I cannot recall the last time that I have seen what in my growing-up years was as common as skate keys,  well-worn basketballs and footballs, and skinned elbows. Maybe there is a correlation to those.

Maybe the cause of the vanishing skinned knees and oft-patched jeans is because kids nowadays wearing safety gear every time they leave the house to do something active. Maybe it is because kids aren’t leaving the house to do things that cause scuffs of flesh: games of hide-and-seek, Red Rover, freeze tag; skating, skateboarding and riding bikes for most of the day; or dare deviling with the aforementioned.

Skin wasn’t the only surface that showed wear and tear – so, too, did denim. Moms kept an inventory of patches to suit the needs of their kids of all ages. Some moms put the patches on the outside to protect denim and the skin that was underneath it, while some used the patches on the inside when tears were small and just needed to be brought together as if sutured. Nowadays,  “fashion” includes jeans torn in ways that would not be possible in the wear-and-tear of youthful living.

Youth now have experiences purchased for them – video games instead of activities, machine-torn jeans instead of a lifestyle that wears them out, adventures on screens large and small instead of undertaken outdoors with energy and imagination.

The list of memories that I maintain for my someday book provide me with perspectives and insights, not to mention joy and a sense of nostalgia. As happy as I am for having the list, I am happier to have had the life to create such an inventory. Here is to living a life that makes memories worthy of collecting.