I am amused by these articles.

People who were children in the 1960s remembered a specific freedom: leaving the house after breakfast and not being findable until the streetlights came on

https://artfulparent.com/a-people-who-were-children-in-the-1960s-remembered-a-specific-freedom-leaving-the-house-after-breakfast-and-not-being-findable-until-the-streetlights-came-on/

They amuse me,. Sure we had a high degree of freedom
.
And who doesn't remember the question, "it's a nice day, why are you in the house?"

My wife has tales of jumping the MBTA and going into Boston.
With a bike your range was square miles.

Thoughta?

 

I and I am sure my wife agree 100% with that article. We've talked about it many times. At the same time, we watch how today's parents, who can't say no and can't do enough - - drive them to school, pick up them up from school, take them to the mall, buy whatever they want, etc,

Sample pix of me growing up. Where are my parents? How can I hang out with this gang. That's me on the far left and kid right behind me was a bully who beat the shit out me. Such is life when parents don't micro-manage.

 

I grew up in the country. The nearest kid my age was a horse owner up the road but I did not care much for her company. We lived upstairs in a big 100 year old house. My grandparents who owned the place along with 70 acres, lived down stairs. Their daughter, my tomboy aunt, was just 3 years older than me so I guess if anyone was a playmate, it was her. (She now lives in Melbourne, FL and we still keep in touch.) We might play catch now and then, or take turns riding her horse. But mostly I played on my own. At age 11 I joined Boy Scouts and that took up a lot of my spare time, attending Troop meetings, going on hikes and camp outs, and working on rank advancement and then merit badges. So my patrol became my buddies. This was all before high school, when we moved to town. Class of '67 had its share of cute girls and good friends. Good times, for sure.

 

ah those were the days. My son has zero spatial orientation as he did not spend much time on the streets like we did when we were young. When I get in the car with him he activates the GPS to go to the grocery store which is about 2 miles from home. we have a good laugh

 

I grew up in Baltimore. Did the same thing when I got home from school. My grandkids ask me what I did before the technology age took over. I said play baseball, football or hockey with my friends until supper then back out until it got dark. We had a bully in the hood who beat up on everybody. Including me. It was a close knit working class neighborhood and any outsider looking for trouble got lots of it. Great pix Dave.

 

I grew up in a small college town. We had the free range of the entire town and if you didn’t get caught the college buildings too. During summer on hot days we would spend most of our time in the college buildings as they were air conditioned. Other times we were all over town until the local church bell went off at 5:00pm. I knew I had to be home for supper at 5:30pm and after that I was off again. It was a good life that kids today will never see or understand.

 

This is indeed what went on in the sixties. Summer days were spent outdoors riding bikes, playing ball, soccer, roaming the woods etc. In the winter it was hockey on the pond, and finding the fastest and longest coasting spot possible. I grew up on on a farm, so working there used up a fair amount of time from about twelve years old on.

 

In all my teenage years my parents never asked me where I was going or what time I was coming home. As long as I woke up and worked for the family business in the morning or I went to school that is all they expected. One day I came home at 5:30 in the morning, and at 6:00 am my father called me to get up and go to work with him, I drove his truck for 14 hours that day, crazy times.

 

Yep. Be home before the streetlights come on. That was the #1 rule.

I had four siblings in my age range, and two above us. We were rarely alone. We had playmates, neighborhood kids, and kids we went to school with to hang out. Head out on your bike or on foot but we weren't hanging around the house. I used to walk downtown and hop on a bus to go to the beach to meet friends. Sometimes I'd skip the bus and walk home and it was a heck of a walk. Life was different. My parents weren't worried about us all the time. It seemed as if it was safer for young kids to be out on their own than it is now.

As fairly young kids, a Saturday afternoon was often spent walking downtown, one or two of us, going to the library to borrow books and stopping at the soda fountain, in the old "five and dime" for a soda. Not a milkshake or ice cream, just a soda, that was how much coin we had in our pockets.

My mother didn't drive when we were kids. Girl scouts was the only outside activity and most of the time spent with that was at the school/church we went to. Walking distance.

My nephew's kids are into so many activities, the parents run around constantly and dish out $$$$ beyond belief. The kids might have an occasional play date with a neighbor or school friend, but that is not how the majority of the time is spent.

 

My thoughts are that it was a safer and kinder time. That was normal then. Big deal. The population, traffic and car speeds were far less then. There were supposed to be perverts who lured kids to their cars with candy and we were told to never go to anyone in a car. I grew up in a neighborhood where we played in the street and yelled, "Car!" when we say one coming. We had dirt clod fights when a new house was going in. I loved roller-skating on the sidewalk. We'd walk to the liquor store with a wagon full of glass bottles to redeem for candy money. I found a way to get under the intersection over a cement wash where my friend and I could hang out in the summer to avoid the heat. We climbed a fence and then walked across a metal I-beam, over the wash to get to ground under the street. We'd ride bikes to Studio City Park to play on the swings or go down the metal slide.

I did see one guy once when I was with my mom when I was about 10 years-old. We were walking back to the car at LA Valley College as it was getting dark, and there was a man with his back against an outdoor handball court backboard doing a handstand with his willy out. I looked over and said, "Is that all there is?" I just thought the guy was stupid and that it was low effort to scare us. I had no idea what my mom thought but she laughed at what I said. I think she was relieved at my reaction.

Life is very different now. It would be probably be considered child endangerment now days. It's just not safe depending on where you live. I think it's still safer in farming areas than cities. Cars are the immediate danger.