Of course, no one was getting robbed or beaten/harrassed, etc. Different times... Being bad was chewing gum or spit balls in school & juvenile pranks. Being really bad was smoking cigarettes.
“Wow, that was not true for us...late 50s/early 60s. Bicycles took us around a large part of the small town. Approx. 10,000”
That was me — the ‘50s / early ‘60s. Also in a small town with one stop light. Also had bikes, but we didn’t roam the area. Only the “bad kids” did that. “Mom, I’m going to Linda’s” or “the candy store”, etc.