Same story, different person.
I grew up on the edge of Seashore State Park. Nowadays it's First Landing State Park.
I would leave in the morning and come home by dark. Our section of the park had about 10 residential streets feeding in, so there was never any worry about finding friends to play with. And friends were made easily, and not soon forgotten.
"Hey, want to help me dig a fort? Wanna build a treehouse? Wanna play Army?" And
after dinner it was "Flashlight tag" (no rules have ever been codified, to my knowledge, in any neighborhood, anywhere
) and catching lightning bugs.
Later, it was " Which Mom (in my case Grandma/Great Aunt) is going to take us to the beach surfing/bodyboarding?" When there was no Mom, sometimes we would go anyway.
And then the teen years...first kiss, first beer, first... well.
Can't do that anymore, unless you live in a rural area. My daughter will never know a life like that. And it's a shame. Trips to the pool, sleepovers, water and Nerf gun fights are about all I can offer, so I offer that tiny bit of my childhood
prodiguously (sp) a lot. Lol.
And we're fine.
(And not that I would have done otherwise but Scout26's post got me waxing nostalgic. Sorry.)