My first day of Kindergarten, I insisted that I would walk home, and I did, it was well farther than a mile.
my first day of first grade my mom pinned a notecard with my address to my coat collar
After school, I confidently walked in the direction of my house down Prior Street, a busy street in St. Paul Minnesota, turned where I thought Ashland should be, and it wasn’t Ashland. I was completely discombobulated, and went crying back the way I came. Some nice young lady came out of her house, read the card on my coat and took me there, it was just a few blocks. My mom acted like I had done something wrong.
Such was the heedlessness of my mom, I could have been kidnapped, raped, whatever.