Gosh, we, as children, were so trusted to use good judgement. I can recall going to the beach (I could swim) all day with my brother and sister and coming home at 5PM. There were never any adults with us. We were fine. We did get into jams every now and then, but we worked them out. We too would play outside for hours and hours. I remember taking an old army blanket and putting it over my Mom's clothes line (she hated this) and then we would take bricks and anchor the blanket so that it created a tent. We would play house all day in there. We would play with empty boxes and slide down the steep hills in them. We would play in piles of leaves for days on end. We were outside just about all the time. We were skinny. We ate sugar piled on our cereal each AM. We had whole milk. We ate lots of red meat. We had little TV time. No computer etc. to play on. We would clamp on stupid roller skates and ruin our shoes, and skate all afternoon on the sidewalks. We would ride bikes (sans the helmet) for hours on end....and follow behind the misquito spraying trucks. Yikes. We didn't care about much at all. We also only took a bath once a week. Can you imagine that? We had a well, and lived way out in the country - so we conserved. We had pets goats, lambs, dogs, etc. (never a cat)..... and we had a good time. We went to bed very darn early and got up early. We also had Sunday dinner (family) every Sunday, regardless. We were close, for sure.