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The prevalence of wild animals just seems to grow, in my experience.  I live in a suburb of Boston that is well groomed, but has lots of wooded patches between houses and several protected natural areas.  I am 42.  My theory is twofold:

1)  In my youth, the population of birds, especially predatory birds, was depressed by DDT and similar insecticides.  The birds are coming back.
2)  In my youth, the population of everything else was depressed by pet dogs.  A leash law was instituted when I was about 20 - until then, packs of pet dogs used to roam freely, generally showing up on school playgrounds at recess-time.  I bet at other times they were chasing whatever deer, raccoons, groundhogs, coyotes, etc. that happened by.  Even if they didn't chase large predators like coyotes, they kept down the population of good prey for coyotes, and made the neighborhood less attractive.  The predators also seem to be coming back - we now have lots of coyotes, and there's a fisher a few towns over, and bears can't be far behind.  

That being said, I've not seen a change in the squirrel population in my lifetime.  There were plenty when I was a kid (living on a lot with mature oak trees) and there are still plenty (again, living on a lot with mature oak trees.)  1922 falls between chestnut blight  (widespread in the NE by 1904) and Dutch Elm Disease (first reported in 1930).   Perhaps the parks your father frequented were lined mostly with majestic elms, and not with trees more hospitable to squirrels.

Ginda

That being said, in 
On Jul 4, 2004, at 9:27 AM, Charles Paradise wrote:

> I still don't understand the inadequacy of natural predators.  Why are fishers so uncommon?  Why don't hawks and other raptors taking enough squirrels so we see less squirrels?  Makes me appreciate natural predators more.  My father told me that when he was a kid around 1922, that squirrels weren't seen in town parks but mostly when out in the woods.  What could have been different in 1922?
>
> Indeed shooting is illegal in my town, but I used to catch many squirrels as well as about everything else in a Havahart® trap I set when I had a small fenced garden.  When I really got mad about squirrels ruining my crops I'd drape a shower curtain over the cage then run a PVC pipe from the car exhaust to the cage and that was very effective.  Not my idea of fun, shows how mad I was about the damage.
>
> I've got two hounds and I'm going to let them have a try at squirrels. 
> C. Paradise 
> Massachusetts zone 5ish
>
> Jwlehman@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 7/3/2004 7:54:26 AM US Eastern Standard Time, redherring@tnaccess.com writes: 
> a lot of 
> squirrels.  Will a BB gun with pellets work on squirrels? A 22 seems like 
> overkill, and I remember shotgun shells are expensive.
> I've often said one can have squirrels or nuts but not both. I feel sorry for those of you that live in populated areas where shooting isn't a good idea or against the law. To answer your question, no normally a BB gun will not kill squirrels outright. However a pellet gun with about 7 pumps will. As a BB spirels in flight, purchase pellets to use with the pump air rifle. 
>
> A rifle isn't necessarly overkill. If one uses (my main defense ammuntion) 22 BC shorts or 22 target shorts that uses a slower burning powder has a much quieter report and still has enough umpf to outright kill squirrels, rabbits, crows, etc.  The report is such that my neighbors seldom hear the report. I use a single shot el`cheapo rifle. I keep my population under control and I livwe in a wooded area, maybe total of 10 acres of woods around the house and buildings.
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