The burden most Freepers carry is we remember what America used to be like.
Oh God, how prescient! At Christmas time my dad and mom would drive us into the city and we would MARVEL at the elaborate mechanical animated displays in the departments stores windows. This would be the mid 1950s. The best representation of those days is in the movie A Christmas Story by one of the best raconteurs of the 20th century, the venerable Jean Shepherd..
We were free range kids in those days. At the age of 5 I would wander the woods, fields, and culverts. The only rule was to be home by dark.
On Saturdays when I was slightly older, I and my buddies would pack a PB&J lunch in a paper sack and fill our boy scout canteens with water. In those days folks left their dogs wander free. Nothing is a major symbiotic combnation than wandering boys and wandering dogs, as a combined pack. We are both cut from the same cloth, and we would wander the woods, creeks, and pastures, avoiding the bulls, till night fall.
PS: I'm going to steal your quote!