Parenting

once my mom showed me the way. We lived on a busy street and she paid an older boy a quarter a week to "cross" me in the mornings, but that was the end of his responsibility. We had a crossing guard by the school, which was (I think) two blocks away. Mom would stand outside and "cross" me after school at noon. I was also allowed to go to my friend's house after school and we often played unsupervised on the university athletic fields nearby (me and two boys). That was where I got my butt full of splinters sliding down a board, which is a whole other story.

I don't remember ever NOT walking to school. When we moved to Wisconsin I walked, first kittycorner across an open field (that was in Badger Village, about which I could write a whole volume), and then in Madison, 6 blocks to my grade school and later 3 blocks to my junior/senior high school. Kids today are soft. By the time I was 8 or so, my mom would hand me some money and ask me to go to the grocery store 3 1/2 blocks away for what she needed and give me a quarter for myself. (I squirreled away the quarters to buy batteries for the flashlight I used to read under the covers, but that's another story too.) At 10 I could take the bus to my own dental appointment, and by not much later I was allowed to take it downtown to the main library. At 11 I was riding my bike all over the west end of town. I knew my boundaries and when I was supposed to be home. My parents would probably be arrested today.