Feral Kids...

[Silver Britches]

We were catch and release to the grease. No Nonsense funView attachment 1249416

That you on the left?

 

[mark-7mag]

That you on the left?

You beat me to it. lol

 

[sinclair1]

That you on the left?

Yes

 

[Core Lokt]

Guilty as charged. I wore many a bicycles out back in the day and a few go carts.

 

[Nicodemus]

What were street lights? And neighborhoods?

 

[BeerThirty]

Mom and dad both worked so, we as kids loved the summer to do as we pleased, after the chores were done of course. I used to leave a note on the table for ma, that we were at so-and-so's or at "the marsh" fishing and that we would be home by dark. We managed. Learned a lot about the world having that kind of freedom, too.

 

[HermanMerman]

What were street lights? And neighborhoods?

I grew up in one, and we had street lights. But my parents were good enough to let me off the leash. The only rule was to come home when the street lights turned on. Now kids can’t walk next door without mom following close behind with a phone recording every second and telling them not to swing too high, don’t run too fast, and don’t dare try climbing that tree.

We all got one chance to be a kid but we didn’t get to pick how and where we were raised. Mine are growing up in a neighborhood now and I am trying like heck to get them somewhere better.

 

[Railroader]

My Grandboys are feral as all get out by today's standards, but nowhere near as feral as I was...

Me and my bunch were plum wild, but we were respectful of the adults, and busted was busted. Own it, and take the consequences.

That got us by...

 

[oldfella1962]

Yep. We would wear out a tent every summer.

And the forts we built up in the trees. Its a wonder we didn't fall and break our necks. My uncle was building his house one summer, so we had a endless supply of scrap wood. When the leaves fell off during the fall, it looked like a subdivision of treehouses through the woods . He wasn't happy

Yes to tree forts! Big oak trees were just askin' for it IMHO. I feel sorry for the sawmills that cut up those trees years after the forts were abandoned & decayed. I'm sure those nails messed up a blade or two!

 

[oldfella1962]

I grew up in one, and we had street lights. But my parents were good enough to let me off the leash. The only rule was to come home when the street lights turned on. Now kids can’t walk next door without mom following close behind with a phone recording every second and telling them not to swing too high, don’t run too fast, and don’t dare try climbing that tree.

We all got one chance to be a kid but we didn’t get to pick how and where we were raised. Mine are growing up in a neighborhood now and I am trying like heck to get them somewhere better.

I grew up in neighborhoods - sometimes apartment buildings - but we still found places to explore & have fun outside. The woods or a lake was always within biking distance.

 

[Silver Britches]

I grew up in neighborhoods - sometimes apartment buildings - but we still found places to explore & have fun outside. The woods or a lake was always within biking distance.

Those woods I played in are now full of homes and businesses.

 

[fireman32]

I was feral, pops left the house at 5:30 in the morning for work and didn’t get home til after 5 p.m. there was nobody else to keep up with me. Fished, walked the woods, killed small game, then I got a Suzuki 125 4-wheeler. I’d ride a couple miles over to my friends house and pick them up on it and we would be gone all day and some of the night. I don’t know how many miles that wheeler toted 3 teenage boys, but it was one tough machine.
My two are country raised, but nowhere near as feral or unsupervised as I was.

 

[Toliver]

Those woods I played in are now full of homes and businesses.

That, unfortunately, is a sad reality for a lot of us. As far as I know, every square inch of where I used to walk the woods, fish and play in creeks is all subdivisions, schools and shopping centers now.

 

[oldfella1962]

Those woods I played in are now full of homes and businesses.

I hear you! If I go on google maps satellite view, there are now homes and businesses in the areas that used to be woods & fields & farms. I can't even walk through the neighborhoods adjacent to my neighborhood (20 years I have been living here) and all the areas that used to be woods & pastures & fields are now 300,000 and 400,000 dollar houses and condos.

 

[Redbow]

Back in the days that I was growing up we did much the same thing with roaming the woods with .22 rifles, jumping up on the running boards of cars etc but most farm kids like me had a lot of work to do every day. Most kids that grew up in the fifties town or farm kids were looking for work to make a dime or two. Money was not abundant like it is today many people could not afford to buy their kids everything they wanted like parents do this day and time. Times were tough for a lot of folks many decades ago and pleasures were few.

 

[livinoutdoors]

Man kids around here still do all of that stuff. At least some of em. Some parents still get it!

 

[Jim Baker]

My sons just entered their 50s. I call them the last generation of "free roaming" kids. Leave in the morning and come in at dark. Then gave a report of the day's adventures and were in the bed wore out by 8:30, up and ready to go again the next morning. Sunday School every Sunday then Sunday dinner at Grandma's house.

Times were different.

 

[redeli]

Mom use to say,,"now get outside and don't come back in til supper or I call you"

 

[BeerThirty]

I hear you! If I go on google maps satellite view, there are now homes and businesses in the areas that used to be woods & fields & farms. I can't even walk through the neighborhoods adjacent to my neighborhood (20 years I have been living here) and all the areas that used to be woods & pastures & fields are now 300,000 and 400,000 dollar houses and condos.

That is part of the reason there aren't as many kids out. With all the development and increase in population, the traffic is absolutely insane in many parts. I know several parents who won't let their kids ride their bikes down the road simply because it's unsafe. You cut a kids mobility and of course there they will be inside more. It doesn't help that the GDOT doesn't know how to build proper shoulders on roads either..

 

[Raylander]

I’m 37 and still feral