By the time I was 5 the only instructions were “be home by supper time.” I did have to tell my parents where I was going and with whom (if I was not alone).
Kids walk up to a mile to school every day, but can’t walk half that far to a park?
I had a bike.
The world was my oyster.
If that’s a punishable offense, then my folks would have been locked up for life. Good grief, what’s wrong with this world?
At age seven I was operating loaders in steel yards loading trucks with pipe, and various other steel materials.
At seven years old it was common for me to walk from East Long Beach to downtown (I walked to save the money for the bus for my candy) to the movie theaters in the evenings, and go to the little café for a burger sometimes around midnight after the movie, and walk back home.
I remember people telling me “to be careful”. “It’s a dangerous World” they would say. Guess I was lucky.
I used to spend all night on the fishing pier often too. Grew up with a fishing pole in my hand. Those were the days.
Fond memories when I was 7 back in the early 60’s. Used to ride my bike to the stores and beyond. Helmets? those were for football. Just had to let our parents know where we were going and be back home at the designated times.
Of course back then (late 60’s to early 70’s) there was still a lot of stay at home moms in the neighborhood who kept a collective eye out for all of us. And if one of us got unruly or acted badly, got into fights or arguments with each other, most of the time us kids would figure out how to work it out on our own, but if we didn’t’ those other kid’s moms would and were not afraid to discipline us and or send us home (with a phone call to our mom’s letting her know what Johnny or Jane had done) and when we got home, instead of our mom’s being angry at the other mom for disciplining us, the other mom would get a “thank you for telling me” and we’d get a whooping or a grounding. Nobody felt it necessary to get the police involved.
And for what it’s worth, when I was that age (in the first grade) I walked to school unaccompanied by any adult after my first few weeks and my school was a good half mile away (and yes, I walked to school in the rain, the snow and the bitter cold). There was the one day however when my mom sent me off to school but when I got to the big heavily trafficked intersection I had to cross, I noticed there were not only no other kids around but also no adult crossing guard so I just stood there for a while. Then another mom with kids in my school saw me standing there and came out and told me, “Honey - there is no school today” and then she offered to drive me home but only after calling my mother. And FWIW, she was as what I recall as a “Green Ball” mom, meaning she had a picture of a green ball displayed on the front window of her house to let kids know this was a safe place to go in case you needed to – a PTA stay at home mom - maybe this was just a local thing (does anyone here remember such a thing?) I do recall I was pretty upset with my mom for sending me off to school on a day that school was closed but it was just an honest mistake on her part and it certainly didn’t rise to the level of “child neglect”. That mom certainly didn’t think so and she didn’t feel it necessary to call the police to report my mom for “child neglect”.
We also had a pool membership at about that same time and once I learned the route which was about 10 blocks away, although my mother often walked with me to the pool because she liked going to the pool too, some days if she didn’t want to go and if I had friends and another mom to walk with, she’d let me go without her, just telling me to be back home at a certain time. By the time I was in the 4th grade, I was allowed to go all by myself and while I had a wrist watch, I didn’t have a cell phone.
I do recall one time, before I started school, when I was about 4-5 years old and I was playing in my back yard on a Saturday afternoon and FWIW, I wasn’t allowed to leave my back yard. But as I was playing by myself I heard music coming from many blocks away and my natural curiosity just got the best of me and I followed the sound of the music at first the far end of my yard and next into my neighbor’s yard and then on and on and soon I ended up standing just outside of the back yard of a house many blocks away where a wedding reception was taking place. I’m not sure if it was an Italian or Greek or Polish wedding, but it was “ethic” of some sort that I was not previously familiar with - all I can remember after some 50 years was that there was a lot of music and dancing and food and a lot of people having a lot fun. And soon I was invited by the father of the bride to join the “party”.
I do remember dancing and talking with people, strangers to me and then sitting down at a table and eating some absolutely fabulous food and having a great time and enjoying their hospitality, so much so that I completely forgot that I had left my back yard against my mother’s instruction.
Before long my mother noticed I was no longer in my own back yard and called for me (and of course I couldn’t hear her) and then in a panic she went looking for me. When she finally found me at the wedding reception, she was very angry with me for disobeying her and being a “wedding crasher”. But the father of the bride and the bride and groom told her what a lovely and very polite and well behaved little girl I was, how proud she should be of me and how happy they were to have me join them on their special day – my attendance evidently being some sort of good omen or good luck charm to them and that they were going to walk me safely back home since I had told them my name and where I lived. My mother thanked them for looking out for me and congratulated them on their nuptials and then she marched me home to a spanking and a week-long grounding.
And in looking back, should I have disobeyed my mother? No. But if I could go back in time and do it all over again, would I do it differently? No! I had a great time! LOL!
I walked to kindergarten at 6 years old. Two miles, in the snow, uphill both ways.
Ok...letting your 7 year old walk alone may not be the smartest thing to do in this day and age....but why did they arrest her...?
Makes no sense at all...
Maybe a nice talking too about the potential dangers out there...for a young child...
Maybe the police were pisssd there was no dog to shoot...
My walk to school in 1957, when I was in the 2nd grade (7 years old)
OMG....my entire family would be locked up....I used to gas up my mini bike and be gone for hours at a time trail riding at that age...
Ok...letting your 7 year old walk alone may not be the smartest thing to do in this day and age....but why did they arrest her...?
Makes no sense at all...
Maybe a nice talking too about the potential dangers out there...for a young child...
Maybe the police were pisssd there was no dog to shoot...
She should and she will will win but at a cost which is the point of the whole exercise. She's just another revenue stream in the justice industry.
If a public park in his neighborhood isn’t safe for a seven year old to the extent that parents are arrested for neglect, then the “it takes a village” meme is completely out the window.
The City Council should be cited for failing to preserve the safety of residents using public parks in their neighborhood.
American society has changed for the worse since I was a kid. I was out all day in the Summer, and came home for bathroom and food. I walked to school and everywhere else.
The USA today is a country where the people lack trust. There is no sense of community. It is not “United” at all. It is divided along dozens of lines.
In the words of Oscar Wilde:
“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”