We pretty much ran wild around the neighborhood. We pretty much stuck to our street (lotta kids in that neighborhood!) until we started riding bikes. Then we could and did go quite a ways. The basic rules were no crossing the main drags. Most of the concern was heavy traffic. Oh & be in before dark, for which in= if not at home, in the house or backyard with an adult on the premises, and we know where you are. It was nice. eta: and my friend is raising her kids in a very similar neighborhood and way in Idaho. So it still exists.

Every Saturday, we went to the Oriental Theater, which had a cheap kid's double feature.

I saw Rocky Horror at the Oriental! Great theater. And there was an awesome bar with a huge international beer selection just down the street from there--Von Trier's, wasn't it?

Childhood freedom was big for us, too. We were latchkey kids in junior high (my brother was in high school by then, so he could keep an eye on us until he was 16 and had an afterschool job, so it was just my sister and me then), and when we were big enough, we'd fix dinner so it was ready by the time Mom got home from work (lots of casseroles that we just had to pop into the oven at a set time and temp, and then mix up some salad or cook veggies on the stove).

Summers were great--Mom had a caretaker for us (one of the neighborhood college girls who would just hang with us to make sure we didn't kill each other) until we were all in high school, then we had the days to ourselves. In junior high, my band had summer practice for the parade season in the fall, so I'd have to walk the 1 1/2 miles to school, and the route didn't have sidewalks so I'd walk on the side of the street (saw a dead cat slowly decompose over the course of one summer's commute!). I'd also ride my bike/walk down to the library/strip mall where there was also the ice cream place and the drug store, always good for a Charleston Chew candy bar and possibly a magazine or two.

bullshit

That's the word.

Hooligan's

And yep, Von Trier's is across the street. Oriental Theatre is still there, but Oriental Drugs is long gone.

And there was an awesome bar with a huge international beer selection just down the street from there--Von Trier's, wasn't it?

I shudder to think what ladies' night would entail at a place called Von Trier's.

t /art movie geek joke

I shudder to think what ladies night would entail at a place called Von Trier's.

Heh.

My major annoyance with Jacob was that he had seen the entire season of Dr. Who already, and he made sure that you knew it. It was very "I'm so-very-clever" to my mind and a bit condescending.

It was a great neighborhood to be a kid in.

As a kid, I ran wild in the forests and fields. If we were feeling really adventurous, we'd ride our bikes 7 miles to the nearest store and drop 50 cents on candy.

Yeah, even with my overprotective mother, I would just run home from school, throw my book bag in the door, yell "Goin' out!" and as long as I was in shouting distance, it was all good. (Shouting distance was quite a long range for my mother.)