When I was a kid my parents let me run the neighborhood with a gang of other kids my age. We rode our bikes, played ball, went to the park, etc. We knew the geographic boundaries of where we were allowed to go, and to be home when the street lights came on.
Of course most people in the neighborhood grew up with and knew my parents, so if we tried anything they were sure to get a call. America in 2018 is much more transient. Where I am now you rarely see a child outdoors. Off playing video games I presume.
My dad told me that when he was a kid in the 40’s he would go down by some railroad tracks and talk to the hobos. Could you imagine that today??
Imagine this. The summer of 1963, in Northern Wisconsin, I turned 12.
I'd ride my bicycle around the lake where my grandparents' summer cabin was, with my Model 52 Winchester, on a sling, a birthday present, and into town. I'd buy a box of .22 hollow points, and then do another mile or so, out to the town dump. I'd shoot rats and other targets of opportunity. Refrigerators were prized, because they reacted, once.
All by myself.
If my grand kid did that, today, he'd be on national news, if I trusted him, after being exposed to my air-headed daughter-in-law...
Imagine this. The summer of 1963, in Northern Wisconsin, I turned 12.
I'd ride my bicycle around the lake where my grandparents' summer cabin was, with my Model 52 Winchester, on a sling, a birthday present, and into town. I'd buy a box of .22 hollow points, and then do another mile or so, out to the town dump. I'd shoot rats and other targets of opportunity. Refrigerators were prized, because they reacted, once.
All by myself.
If my grand kid did that, today, he'd be on national news, if I trusted him, after being exposed to my air-headed daughter-in-law...