I hear ya. I don't know - it's really very sad.
I remember sledding too - we had a huge hill in the foothills in town that was always PACKED with people sledding and tubing. You could easily go several hundred yards, which made for an awesome ride! Now it's "off limits" to everyone - because the City doesn't want lawsuits. :doh
Those places we used to hike in the foothills? Off limits now for most of the useful time of the year because of "nesting birds."
Riding my bicycle on the streets? Used to be safe. Now pedestrians and bicyclists have legal right-of-way to the streets - before cars and trucks. Ostensibly it was for their safety. Ironically, it's now no longer safe to ride on the streets or cross them. People assume since they have the right of way they can just ride wherever/however or amazingly, just walk right into traffic! The City is actually trying to figure out why the past 10 to 15 years have seen an astronomical increase in vehicle-bicycle and vehicle-pedestrian deaths.
"I'm frum da gubmint and I'm heer ta help..."
.....but I digress. We really had a lot of fun tubing, making jumps, crashing, piling on....
And we'd ride all over town and in the mountains, exploring everywhere.
I remember riding downtown with my brother when we were both in grade school - some 3 miles. Leave our bikes outside the Walgreens to go inside and sit at the counter and down sodas.