Youth Gone Wild . . A look Back while looking at our Current Situation

My daughters wanted to go out to ride scooters/bikes.  We hesitantly let them but told them to stay near the house.  As I am saying this, my mind goes back to when I was a child in California.  My brother and I were latchkey kids.  Our mom worked to support us.  We had gone through most of the babysitters in town.  They didn't like it when we would just take off and go home or elsewhere.

Growing up in Southern California was fun.  During summers and days off from school, we'd go all over the town.  One thing I'd love to do was see movies.  I'd catch a bus or walk to the theater.  It was 10 to 15 miles away, but I wanted the money.  I remember going to see Indian Jones, Star Wars, Top Secret, Poltergeist, etc.  They were all great.  At least it was to a child.  When I rent some of these nowadays, I wonder what I was thinking.  I stand corrected. I have been informed it was more like 5 miles, but to child 5 miles is more like 10 to 15 miles.

We were also close to the beach.  I don't remember swimming by ourselves, but we'd ride our bikes there.  Near the beach were the train tracks. I'd put money on the tracks for the train to run over.  Along the track, there was a bridge with a catwalk.  We climb on the catwalk and wait for a train to pass over.

Sometimes, we'd go to the Boy's Club.  It gave us a safe place to go, when we'd stay.  We were able to go on field trips to theme parks and baseball games.  It was a fun place.  I wish I had that for my girls.  In our area, they are limited to certain communities and always are too full to take in more children.

I know now I would not let my girls do what we did then.  I even think we were pretty lucky.  This was the same time when Adam disappeared in Florida.  I remember seeing a movie called Without a Trace about a missing child.  There were sick individuals out there.  Not only that, but the downtown area had X-rated movie theaters.  We'd pass these places as we journeyed around the town.  In our current times, its hard to trust anyone.  I guess it was like that back then too.