Meanwhile, the media expands exponentially, bombarding us with information about child molesters, gang violence, murders and foreign wars. Modern life can sometimes seem right out of a bad science fiction movie.

For parents, the modern world can seem frightening. At the same time, children have more opportunities for enrichment than ever before.

Those of us more than a couple of decades old remember when there were only a handful of channels on television. We remember when mobile phones were the size of a shoebox. A video game could consist of nothing more than a white square bouncing back and forth across the screen and still provide hours of entertainment.

Those of us more than a couple of decades old remember a time when children climbed trees and walked to school alone.

Those days are long over. The modern child is growing up in a far different world.

The past

Jim Horn, 70, moved to Los Gatos in 1943 from a small town in the Central Valley. "Life was simpler then," he says. "It was more agricultural. In the summertime we picked prunes and apricots. Most of the guys picked the 'cots, and the girls cut them."

Horn remembers when the train ran right through town. He lived with his family behind the grocery store his family owned on the corner of what now is Los Gatos Boulevard and Shannon Road.

"During the war years, it was tough," he says. "In those days, things were rationed. People were concerned about winning the war. People from that time will never forget those war years."

Horn met his wife, Gloria, when the two were in the third grade. They started dating in high school and have been together ever since. Both graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1953.

"In high school, I used to hitchhike to Santa Cruz and think nothing of it," he recalls. "I would never let my kids do that today.

"Kids were outside all the time then. We'd never stay inside. We walked to school or rode our bikes. It's not that way anymore."

Joe Zanardi, 62, remembers building forts with his friends alongside the railroad tracks by Oak Meadow Park. "Back then everyone had a BB gun. You don't see those anymore. I used to put a penny on the railroad tracks and wait for the train to come by and flatten it."

Zanardi remembers when he was
6 years old walking or riding his bike downtown to buy groceries. Today, Zanardi walks his 6-year-old grandson to karate lessons that are in the same building where he used to buy groceries as a child. He says his grandson is not allowed to walk alone to lessons. "[Children] have a lot more supervision now," he says. "I just think they have a lot more restrictions on them these days."

Zanardi graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1961. "When I went to school, everyone wore crew cuts," he says. "I didn't have any hair until I was 26 years old. Then the Beatles craze started, and everyone wore long hair."

Zanardi, who runs the Los Gatos Athletics Association for Los Gatos High School, says there are a lot more extracurricular activities and programs available to children growing up in Los Gatos today. "We didn't have any of that. The only program I used to do was the softball program, which was the only one available."

Horn and Zanardi have watched the agricultural economy of the valley disappear. They saw the freeways being built and the valley fill up with people.

"Life was not so complicated back then, for sure," Horn says. "Life is becoming more complicated everywhere."

The present

Robin Mano has two children. David Fishman is a fifth-grader at Blossom Hill Elementary School and Ariel Fishman is an eighth-grader at Fisher Middle School.

Mano agrees that childhood today is much more structured than it used to be. "Some parents are sensitive to the fact that we shouldn't over-structure our kids' time. I'm one of those parents."

Mano still spends a lot of time picking up and dropping off her two children at different activities.

On Monday, David has guitar class. Today is Tuesday, and Mano has just picked up David from school. She's taking him to an exercise and nutrition class. Hebrew school is on Thursday. David is also training for a triathlon. He and mom train together. In the fall, David plays football.

Ariel participates in one activity. Every day after school, Mano drives Ariel to karate class. In May, Ariel will test for a second-degree black belt.

When David and Ariel get home, they have dinner and they do their homework.

"Maybe they are more structured than I thought," Mano laughs. "And that is not as structured as other kids. I kind of feel we are on the low end, which is kind of pathetic."

"I don't remember so much focus on organizational sports and organized activities in general when I was growing up," she says. "Ariel wants to do karate. If it were affecting her schoolwork, we wouldn't let her go as much. I don't feel that my kids feel stressed with their level of activity. If I saw any signs of stress, I would have them cut back."

Kristin Tedford grew up in Los Gatos and is now raising her two daughters here. "I think there's a lot more parental involvement in the schools and in kids' activities now," she says.

She remembers being in the second grade and walking into town with her third-grade sister. The two of them would walk from their home past the high school through the fields and over the footpath to the candy store on Los Gatos Boulevard.

"I'd never let my kids do that today," Tedford says. "There's just a precaution that people take now. I think there's so much more awareness about what could happen. You hear about it more, and you're more cautious."

Tedford's daughters are 11 and 9. Tedford's day started this morning at 8:30 when she drove her two girls to school. When school gets out, she picks them up and shuttles them to their afternoon activities. Depending on the day of the week and the season, the girls are involved in tennis, tap dancing, guitar lessons and school plays.

"Normally, I keep my kids in a couple activities. I just think it's fun for them. It broadens their experiences and makes for a more interesting person. It's a productive way for them to spend time. I'm not interested in having them come home and watch TV in the afternoons."

Tedford says a big change she sees since she was a child is the amount of homework expected of children today. "We didn't have a whole lot of homework when I was in elementary school. People have higher expectations now. I think that we live in a valley that has some pretty intense parents who want to see their kids get into good schools and be successful."

Mano says although life for children today is more structured, she still sees children outside riding their bikes to baseball or tennis practice. "It definitely has a small- town feel here," she says. "You see people you know when you walk down the street. It's nice here that way. But I think parents keep a closer eye on their kids now. I do think you have to keep kids on a shorter leash than we were kept on. There's more awareness now. I think our parents really didn't know what was going on."

The teenager

Jacqui Kemp, 18, has participated in structured activities from elementary school through high school. "I was super-active," she says. "I always had some kind of sport after school. I took piano lessons. I played club soccer for 11 years. In middle school, I was on the student council."

Now a high school student, Jacqui keeps busy as chair of the Los Gatos Youth Commission. She runs cross country after school. She takes advanced placement classes, which means plenty of homework every night.

Jacqui agrees that the childhood her parents experienced was completely different from that of her generation. "The world is so much more competitive now. Kids have a lot more pressure to learn more in less time," she says. "It's all centered around getting into a good college. A lot of focus is put on being well rounded. That means sports after school, music, theater, AP classes. Everyone is taking SAT prep classes. People are getting tutors after school.

"And the curriculum has expanded. The teachers just have so much more to teach now. My younger brother is in the fifth grade and he's learning stuff I learned in the seventh and eighth grade."

Technology is also a big difference, Jacqui says. Teenagers have cell phones. They use instant messaging. "Most people check their email multiple times a day."

As she enters the final stretch of her senior year at Los Gatos High School, Jacqui has already been accepted into four colleges. She's waiting to hear back from several more.

Kids are still kids

As part of a project for her English class last year, Jacqui interviewed her grandfather, who grew up in Los Angeles. "There were the same boyfriend-girlfriend issues back then," she says. "All the social pressures with friends and with relationships and with fitting in have not changed."

Zanardi says he is impressed with the young people he sees at Los Gatos High School today. "The kids down there are great. We are really fortunate here in our community."

Horn says that although life has become more complicated, Los Gatos still has its downtown where people can meet, and it still has its high school, which is the heart of the community. He has seen those elements disappear from other communities in the area, but Los Gatos has been able to retain them. "One of the things Los Gatos hasn't lost is its identity. We're fortunate to have that. People are lucky to live here."

Horn says he sees a lot of school and community support in town. Perceptions have changed, and so have lifestyles, and there's a lot more money in town now, but Horn says it's still the same town. "People like living here. I think people feel good about living in Los Gatos."

"I love it here," Zanardi says. "I wouldn't trade it for the world." Zanardi says that although childhood is different now, Los Gatos is still a good place to raise children. "Kids are still kids," he says. "It's a great place to grow up."

El Camino Hospital