[[Read later.]]
The whole thread is worth the read! Some really great stories of growing up free and carefree.
Didn’t mention riding in the bed of a pickup truck. Did that often when the family car was on the fritz. Being one of 6 siblings there was not room in the cab for all 8 of us.
They didn’t mention kids getting locked inside refrigerators back when they had mechanical (instead of magnetic) catches on them.
We never went home when the street lights came on. We lived 3 miles from the nearest burg. No street lights.
Also, never followed any DDT sprayers. We lived with the damn bugs. Flies so thick the cows’ tails never stopped moving.
Rode the bus to school, but you still had to wait at the end of the long lane in the cold or rain until it got there. Sometimes earlier than scheduled, sometimes later. The neighbor girls freezing in their short short skirts because they refused to wear pants like boys!
I was fascinated by farm machinery and airplanes, riding along with Dad as early as 4 years old. By age 6 he had me driving an Oliver 88 pulling a 4 section harrow (not much too it, as you just drag it, there was no raising or lowering it. But being 24 feet wide, you just had to stay clear of the fences when turning at each end of the field). Dad was in the same field plowing with the John Deere 730 diesel.
A week before I turned 7 he had me on the JD730, raking oat straw so he could go cut oats for the neighbors. Unsupervised, I thought I was big stuff, doing big man’s work.
My mistake was making myself useful at that early age. Work, work, work, it was all the time it seemed. Except for things like an occasional game of blind tag in us kids’ second home: the wonderful big maple in our front yard.
Yes, those were the days of growing up free and carefree. Going to a friend’s house unscheduled and walking to school by yourself are unsafe nowadays? I walked a mile to school for 7 years. I loved visiting playgrounds afterwards. Of course, I walked on an air force base. I never wore a bike helmet and never needed one. Guess I was lucky. Plus, I loved candy and Froot Loops growing up. Didn’t have a cavity until I was 12. Going to beach alone: I got caught in a rip tide once. I eventually swam in enough to get out of it. I found out it was a rip tide years later. Lucky that day.