I was allowed to play outside. Even down the street at a neighbor’s house.
My mother used to have to send a kid to find us when it was suppertime, and this was in Newark.
Being dropped off at Disneyland w a friend at age 13.
We got to go anywhere we wanted, the rule was that we weren’t allowed to go alone but there were 6 of us living next door to a family of 10 so being alone was actually a hard thing to do and of course, we had to have permission.
We went to the park, to the pool, the movies and downtown, to our friend’s houses.... When we were older we walked to school sporting events.
I was allowed to play all over the neighborhood—and take a city bus to school, which required a transfer to another bus—in the first grade.
Brother, friends and I did all this in the late 60s and early 70s in the Pacific NW:
Building tree-houses 30 feet or more up in the trees.
Building bike jumps in the street, taking off from up the hill and hitting the jumps as fast as we could see how far we could fly.
Climbing the Douglas fir trees (some as high as 150 feet or more) all the way to the top, just so we could touch the top.
I was in the bed of a small Datsun pickup while Mom was teaching my brother how to drive in a school parking lot. At one point he panicked while heading straight for a water filled ditch as she yelled at him to STOP! He drove right into the ditch and I ended up holding on in the back hoping I didn’t go flying out.
Jumping on our bikes in the morning and heading out to explore and not getting back until dinner time. Lots of places to explore in the woods back then.
Building rope swings on huge evergreen trees and staying for hours jumping out over a deep ravine holding on with just our hands.
BB gun fights out back in the forest. Never put an eye out.
Finding swamps and deep holes filled with water out in the woods and building small rafts to get around.
Lots more, but the sad thing for me now is that my brother turned into one of the parents of today who never lets his two kids do anything. Won’t even teach them how to ride a small bike at ages 7 and 6 (both girls). Gets paralyzed with fear if they, God forbid, start climbing on the slides in the kids area at the park. Yelled at me once for giving the oldest a small cutting tool to cut weeds with in the back yard. Sad.
In third grade I rode my bike to and from school everyday. Probably about a half mile or so each way.