Tommy Liberto, known as Mr. Christmas Tree, crosses Seventh Avenue while visiting New York for the tenth year from Bel Air, Md., Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

A charred deer figure stands in the ruins of a devastated home, as the Eaton Fire continues, in Altadena, California, on January 14, 2025. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

A person takes a photograph of a 60-foot-long balloon of Kim Kardashian to promote SKIMS Swimwear in Times Square in New York City, U.S., March 4, 2025. (Photo by Adam Gray/Reuters)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

The First U.S. Spacewalk – Gemini 4 Ed White made the United States' first spacewalk on June 3, 1965 during the Gemini 4 mission. The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) started at 19:45 UT (3:45 p.m. EDT) on the third orbit when White opened his hatch and used the hand-held manuevering oxygen-jet gun to push himself out of the capsule. (Photo by NASA)

This bat gives a cheeky smile as he gobbles down his food at Singapore Zoo, on September 10, 2013. (Photo by Benny Iskander/HotSpot Media)

A Bedouin rifleman hides behind his camel while he carefully takes aim in the Sahara desert. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1955

A sledding dog is covered in ice after spending the night in the open air with his musher at the polar base of Val-Cenis, as they ready for the next stage of the 12th edition of “La Grande Odyssee” sledding race across the Alps on January 17, 2016 in Val Cenis Lanslevillard. (Photo by Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP Photo)