Walking 3 miles to school ended in the 50’s when buses became more common and dependable. I have a picture of my sister driving a John Deere A tractor pulling a trailer with my brothers going to school in the 40’s. School was about 4 miles away in rural farmland.
Today even having thoughts about making a kid walk to school (free ranging to leftards) would be child abuse and cause to bring in social services.
Also in the child abuse department, my sister and brother drove a grain truck on the farm. My sister sat on her knees to steer the truck while the brother was on the floor operating the clutch as gas pedals. It’s a frequent story she tells at family get-togther’s. All of us kids were raised to be independent at a very early age. My first vehicle was a tractor at age 9. At age 14 I drove a loaded gravel truck. At age 16 I hired on as a grain truck driver with no drivers license.
Those abusive events traumatized all of us kids forcing us to become loyal American conservatives. The dastardly way we were raised caused us to fear today’s normal American joys of abortion, drug abuse and making friends while in jail.
“Also in the child abuse department, my sister and brother drove a grain truck on the farm. My sister sat on her knees to steer the truck while the brother was on the floor operating the clutch as gas pedals.”
It was good enough doing just the gas and brake pedals blind, but the clutch - that took some SERIOUS coordination!!!
(and for people not familiar, back in the day, clutches were not synchronized, as they are today, and thus were much more difficult to operate)
It's worse than that. Nowadays, kids aren't even supposed to have to walk to the end of their driveways to catch the bus. Parents are literally bundling their kids into the family car and pulling to the end of the driveway to wait for the bus in an idling car. They actually wait until the bus comes to a complete stop before letting their precious ones out - usually in pajama bottoms and flip-flops even on a cold winter day.
Process is repeated that afternoon.
I see it for myself and for some reason, it just drives me crazy.