I lived in a large suburb to a medium sized city. Leave it to Beaver land.
Our bus stops were the areas, of play and fight; kick or be kicked as well as the land of who could be the crudest or the most unique.
My play area included houses under construction and I was almost killed in one of them by a thousand pounds of falling dry wall board.
“a thousand pounds of falling dry wall board.”
Glad you survived the wall board and I didn’t fall off an oil derrick. I think kids back then were not as “contained” as they are now. A parent today would likely have us “play” by watching something on TV or playing a video game.
The only car instruction I ever got as a kid riding in the back seat of our car was, “Don’t hold your arm out the window”. My mom knew someone who held his/her arm out the window and a car coming by ripped it off that person.
“Now” is way different from “then”.