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June 18, 2015
When I was a child, we were all "free range."
Our parents allowed us more and more independence the older we got based on how well we handled the responsibility.I was "free range" by the time I was three years old â not exactly my parents' choice, though. The story goes that I wanted to go to school with my brother and escaped from the house when I got the opportunity and walked the two blocks to his elementary school. The front door was dead-bolted, and my mother tried to watch me assiduously. When she turned her back, I was out the door and down to the school. I stopped after a few days â not because my mother could keep me in, but because they wouldn't let me stay at the school and kept having my mother pick me up. My brother did walk me to school the first day of kindergarten, but then my mother realized how ridiculous it was. Articles: When I Was a Kid, We Were All 'Free Range'
Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 18, 2015 2:40 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I grew up free range or as we called it. Grew up. in the Florida panhandle between Pensacola Bay and Santa Rosa Sound in the late 50's and early 60's.
It was still fairly wild back then and most of the people we knew survived, minus the usual broken bones, cuts, near drownings and such. We were not scared of the daytime or the dark of night because those were our playgrounds. I feel bad for the children who will never know the freedom we had, or the fun.
Posted by: Kelvin ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 18, 2015 2:02 PM
That's how you learned your physical and intellectual limits, Kevin. And then you tried to exceed them, just because. I was right there too, a few hundred miles south, in Fort Myers, FL.
Our dad had 2 rules:
1) Be home at 5pm for supper, or else.
2) If you get caught, don't come home, my punishment will be worse than anything the police will do to you.
Posted by: ghostsniper at June 18, 2015 3:05 PM