My mom used to ORDER us to go outside and play for hours on end...all the neighbors would look out for each others' kids. My brothers and I would come home with cuts, bruises, and all types of scrapes. We didn't rush to the ER or whine about it like today's kids do.
No wonder there's so many fat-assed, diabetic, lazy kids around today. Sitting at home with their Xboxes, chatting online or on their cell phones.
We also used to go to little league games on our own on our bicycles, and play without our parents watching (thank God!).
A couple of times, a friend of mine and I in 4th grade biked the 8 miles to our school outside the city in Miquon.
At age 13, my dad gave us the run of the city and the surrounding area (Philadelphia), at least as far as our bike or the bus or trolley would take us, with the main rule being come home for dinner at 6. So now I could bike 6 miles to the hobby shop in Jenkintown on my own, including biking on suburban roads with no shoulder or sidewalk and biking down the side of the 4 lane divided highway (oh the horrors!).
When we really wanted to have fun, my dad took us around to places we otherwise could not get into, like climbing up the huge abandoned cranes at the defunct Girard Point grain terminal in S. Philly to catch the views.
Dad (who was a chemist) also brought home the necessary chemicals when we wanted to make gunpowder, and beakers of liquid nitrogen for "experiments" on our insect compatriots.
This was 1977-1990. My wife can't believe the freedom I had. Like running down to the next block on my own at age 3 1/2 to go visit my best friend.