Last Tuesday I got Cooley High from the library for something I'm working on. This is a phenomenal Chicago movie and while not everything holds up I still enjoy it very much. On this viewing I was reminded that it has some of the best reckless running ever filmed. At the start of the movie, after the most dangerous, riding on a CTA bus bumper stunt, there is an extended montage at one my personal favorite places on earth, the Lincoln Park Zoo. So much running and high fiving! While I respect the running, I feel like they are not getting the best of the zoo. They're running past a bunch of amazing animals!

Cooley High was later reconfigured and repackaged as the television show "What's Happening." This was shown on Fox32 in the coveted after-school/before dinner slot and I'm sure I've seen every episode at least 4 times. The opening credits brought back the easy jostling, kidding around running. I guess that was just a thing kids did in the 70s. My favorite episode of  "What's Happening" is actually a two part episode that concerns bootlegging at a Doobie Brothers concert. The Doobies perform several songs. They don't do any running.

I don't have a ton of interaction with youngsters and that's fine. I do hope they are still reckless running with their friends. Traveling through the world with a little light shoving, no-jive low fives and nonsensical laughter. Maybe there's a basketball to dribble and pass back and forth or a game of tag that never starts or ends it just continues. I don't even know if this was a part of my childhood or I just mix up the memory of seeing it on the screen and assume it was part of my life. I do know I love to see it. Youthful running, free and wild, pushing limitations, growing their way into this world.