Posted on 04/06/2024 1:39:58 PM PDT by Twotone
Did you have a note with you, mine did when I was that age
I was a free range kid too. One time I went to the store for my mom. When I put the grocery bag down to get my bike a dog came up and stole the pack of hotdogs out of the bag. I thought my parents would be upset. They thought it was funny.
No, this was not the best of neighborhoods and it was in the big city.
But it was understood that life brought risk.
Another reason to elect a constitutional, pro-2nd amendment sheriff in your county. This sheriff will educate gestapo cops and perverts in child “protection” services not to harass citizens going about their lawful activities.
As a 16yo you needed your mom to check on your trip to the grocery store?!?
Fourteen and 15-year-olds can legally work, granted limited hours, at the local grocery store.
I think I usually had a note; this was in the late 50’s, early 60’s.
We could walk a couple blocks then turn the corner and walk another couple blocks to get candy at the drug store. When we got to the corner we RAN FAST because the corner building was a “beer joint”, and who knows what kind of monster(s) might walk out!!
Oh yeah it sure does. You either haven’t seen how intrusive HOAs can get or you’re on a Board.
The independent son graduated with a 4.33 GPA and served in Iraq/Kuwait with the USMC. All without the help of statist nannies and Karens reporting his every move to the police and CPS.
Yes she did. In front of about four friends, she told be to be careful crossing a somewhat busy street. I was the same age, 16!
That time is never coming back, and it’s impossible to go back to that place.
Statistically, it was worse back then than it is now.
Uncle Sam moved me and my family to San Diego. My two boys (14, 12) met friends who take public transportation everywhere (it's free for schoolchildren).
I relented at first because I was protective. And then I realized, the only way my kids are going to learn self-sufficiency and independence is if I throttle back on the leash.
Now I'll let my boys take the Coaster Train from San Diego to LA, grab a bite to eat, and come back.
Am I worried? Sure! But this is the world they're inheriting and they need to know how to navigate it.
I'd be doing them a disservice if I never allowed them to experience it. And they'll grow in to better men for it.
When I was about seven years old my father sent me to a local tavern with a one gallon type insulated drink jug ( with a spigot) and the waiting bartender filled it with draft beer.
My dad and next door neighbor sat out on our front porch and sipped beer and appeared to watch my brothers and some neighbor kids goof around on our front lawn
I remember one time as a young child when my mother took me to my aunt’s house. Then they left me alone in the house for several hours while they went shopping. No harm came of it.
My mother had a friend who lived in our apartment complex, and she had two young daughters. The toddler, Annie, one day took surreptitious sips from the friend’s Pina Colada that she had made. We all had a laugh at the story of that toddler starting to walk around with a bounce in her step. Nobody made a federal case of it.
I used to walk to school. .7 mile. I used to walk places. I picked up the groceries. Visited friends. Rode my bike.
That time is never coming back, and it’s impossible to go back to that place.
= = =
I would like to walk the train tracks, bike down to the river, stop at a friend’s house, ... like those days long age.
But today, I’d carry.
Nope, no note.
When I was a kid we lived in Montebello, Ca. about a 1/4 mile from the Rio Hondo River.
My brother and I (me about 5 or 6, my brother about 7 or 8) would spend all day on weekends and all summer down in the river bed, we knew if we heard the rumble to get out of the river bed because the rumble meant they opened the flood gates of the dam, it could happen any time.
It was great tactical experience escaping from Jerry’s Hispanic gang (yes we had them even back in the late 40”s/early 50’s), we would get to one of our locations that had limited access points and defend ourselves with stockpiled rocks, they would usually give up after short time and a few bruises.
We would outrun the freight trains across the Whittier trestle and if we couldn’t make it we would jump off into the sandbars below(about 15 foot drop).
We would catch buckets of crawdads to bring home for supper, fish for trout with hand lines, raid duck nests for eggs, hand catch bull frogs for frog legs.
We left the area in the late 50’s and my brother and I never went back until the late 70’s, yup, the river is all concrete now and has no wildlife whatsoever.
Weirdest thing was my brother and I went to Redondo Beach in the late 70’s to do some beach diving and decided to visit the old haunts on our way home, it was about 5 or 6 pm and we were standing on one of the new to us bridges.
Who walks up? JERRY with 3 of his boys with him, me and my brother figured we were dead men!
He stares at us for a few seconds and then yells “YOUR THOSE CHINGADA JAMES BOYS”, me and my brother KNEW WE WERE DEAD!
Jerry walks up to us with a big smile on his face and grabs our hands and gives us a big shake.
He then tells us we shouldn’t hang around this are very long because it’s a dangerous place for “pedejo gabachos” now days.
We talked “old times” for a few minutes the shook again and left.
BEING A KID IN THE OLD DAYS WAS FUN AND DANGEROUS AT THE SAME TIME, I guess Jerry would be the head GANGBANGER now but when we were kids it was still a game.
Played seriously, but still a game.
I must have missed where a HOA was even involved in anyway.
Let’s throw some guns in
the mix.
At twelve, in Jr high
my dad let me and my
brother join the gun
club sponsored by our
school. Mondays and
Thursdays saw us
sporting 20ga shotguns
on the bus (during dove
season), regular times
were .22’s. We’d do some
bird hunting on the walk
home from the bus stop.
We’d clean ‘em and present
to mom for dinner. Dipped
in cornmeal fried with
taters.
Good times back then, and
my, how they have changed.
We followed the rules of
no loaded weapons allowed
on the bus, and our pockets
we’re stuffed with the
shells.
I walked to the convenience store (for comic books and candy) and, if I could find someone to play with, played outside until the sun started going down or the other children went home, since I was an only child. But that was in the 1960s, in a town full of military and retired people. This little boy is in a suburb of Atlanta and is an easy size to snatch. Perhaps the police have gotten too many calls from frantic parents with missing children. I think these parents are idiots for not requiring their children to only go somewhere if someone will go with them.
I’ve also read plenty of old cases about children being kidnapped, abused, murdered or disappearing altogether from all the years people thought children were safe. You’re blessed you didn’t run into any of these monsters, as was I. I’m now seeing videos of children being grabbed from right next to their parents. If that doesn’t impress parents enough to take precautions, then they’re not facing reality and may pay a painfully high price some day.
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