When I was 11 years old during the late 80s, I walked about 3 miles to school. I went through yards, woods, and all kinds of places. Somehow I managed to survive. (I did carry a handgun though - the horror)
Ridiculous.
“Free Range Kids.” I find this story somewhat amusing. Starting about 1940, I attended Parkside Elementary School (historic) located on the other side of Sligo Creek Parkway less than a quarter mile from where the Meitivs now live. My parents dropped me off in the morning on their way to work but my brother (who was four years older) and I were expected to walk back after school about a mile and a half to our home (now a county park called Forest Glen Park) on the other side of Georgia Avenue. After my brother graduated to junior high school, I walked home alone. The only problem I ever had walking home was a confrontation with a goose on Beans’ farm where I learned the hard way what my nurse from childhood told me; ”Gooses has rocks in their wings!”