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.)

Yeah, growing up in a small town was great. We used to go all over the place on our own, let alone the hours we could spend out of eyesight in our own (20 acre) yard/pond/woods. I looked it up on Google earth recently, and was happy to see it hadn't been developed.

It's not just that we're more paranoid than our parents, though. It's that the world has changed, and it's difficult. The SO & I were talking about it lately, and I don't know how I'd protect a kid from junk on the internet, let alone the larger world.

We're stricter with our students than we would have wanted for ourselves. Although that's partly to do with cultural stuff; part of what we do is provide structure and discipline that they might not otherwise get.

I grew up within walking distance of 2 very safe playgrounds in the suburbs. My kids will grow up within walking distance of Prospect Park - fantastic that we're so close by (one of the main reasons we bought this place), but no way in HELL will they be going there alone. Ever.

I remember going to hang out a friend's house, and we'd go wading in the creek behind the subdivision, catching crawdaddies, dangling our feet in the water to stay cool, and just having a ball. We couldn't have been older than 11.

IOnatureN, the cicadas are coming to Chicagoland! (Chicago Tribune registration req'd.) I remember the last wave of cicadas back in 1990--talk about loud!!

Who can tell me anything about Raleigh, North Carolina. Would I ever want to live there?

We have friends live in Studio City right next to a medium-sized park. All the kids on the block play together and run in and out of each others' houses, and over to the park, where there is always an impromptu basketball game or games of tag or whatever. It's hard to find neighborhoods like that these days, however. The only way they could afford to buy there was to get a really rundown house and spend the last eight years fixing it up.

What do people think about the trend of master planned developments? The ones that are trying to recreate the village feel, walkable shops, small enclaves within a larger development, that sort of thing?

Would I ever want to live there?

Good God, no. But you'd want to live in either Durham or Chapel Hill/Carrboro!