Maggie's Farm

"7-Year-Old Walk a Mile."

When my son was 5 YO we walked from the North rim to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in two days. Kids are more resilient than adults.

The world is different but mostly because of the population growth and immigration (Sorry we are talking about crime and the simple fact is immigrants commit crime about 10 times greater than the white citizens do.)

But having said that I wouldn't even let my daughter play out front without me being right there to watch her. And when we took care of our grandkids I did the same thing. SO I agree especially for girls. I used to say, when my son was young and he would go out all day, no one would take him and if they did they would return him because he is such a pain in the ass. An over simplification of the simple truth that boys are safer than girls on the street alone.

I grew up in the 40's and I was a feral child and didn't know there was another way to live. I would sometimes be gone from 7 in the morning until 5 or even 9 at night in the summer and that was as a preteen. IMHO that is how Boys should be raised. Sometimes when I was out all day I would come home to cold supper on a plate on the table. I would eat greedily as my mother gave me hell for coming home late. But then go do it again the next day. I was working at 13 and worked two jobs and sometimes three for years. Again I will say that is how it should be for boys; independence, hard work and hard knocks. But as a recovering misogynist, I think girls/children should be watched over and protected like a hawk.

On these long days spent away from home I would "forage" for food. My local super market had a small enclosed room in the back where they would store produce waste for the local pig farm to pick up. I would regularly forage through it and get veggies, lettuce, corn, whatever was in season. Surprisingly the quality was mostly good even though it was being tossed. Nearby was a do-nut shop which would throw out day old's and even sometimes a rack of fresh but not quite acceptable do-nuts. Good eats. There was a chip company nearby too that would regularly toss an entire kettle of chips for unknown reason. I knew where the best gardens and orchards were and I even carried a small salt shaker for the tomatoes. The uninhabited areas and wooded areas had berries in season. I always carried a minimal fishing kit and would catch fish and cook them right where I caught them. I would drink directly from the streams, would not advise that today, and I knew where water fountains were and of course there is always the house spigots. Life was good as a kid back then, I don't generally see the same thing available to most kids today.