When I was a kid, we played outside all day...no cell phones to call home with.  But I think my mother knew where I was most of the time, anyway, as we played with the same kids all the time and alot of time it was with my brothers, also.

As long as we were in for dinner, and then could go back out and play till the street lights came on.  I don't every remember it being a big problem! 

We played by the railroad tracks near my house! And one day, a circus came to town--my brothers and I helped out at the circus!  (There's no way I would have let MY daughter do that!)

We drank from the garden hose...and survived! We had little painted turtles, now the carries of disease, that lived in plastic dishes with a fake palm tree. 

We rode everywhere in cars with no seat belts, and when they were installed in our cars they were generally lost into the gap between the seat and the back of the seat...We rode in the back of my fathers truck!  Hundreds of miles sometimes, when my family went to northern Michigan.  Another thing I would NEVER let my daughter do!

And when we were up north, we played with BB guns--and even worse, we went out into the area where the National Guard practiced every summer and picked up the empty brass shell casings and even some unexploded "duds".  What were we thinking?  We'd find all kinds of fun and exciting stuff that the soldiers left behind....

We didn't even own a key to our house, I don't believe. It was never locked. I'm not sure about the cars, whether they were locked, but I doubt it!  I do remember my father getting his truck stolen as he just left the keys in it.  But it would also start without the key--you just turned the ignition slot and it would start! 

We walked to school, rain or shine, every day, and then back home.  No concerns about being "stolen".  No concerns about school shooters, only about fake bomb threats so that everyone could get out of school.

Surprisingly, I don't remember having to go buy cigarettes for my dad at the store.  I don't remember if my brothers did it for him, either, but maybe he just got his own?  It was a long time ago! 

Some of the things I did in college--whew! If my daughter did them I would be VERY upset and concerned! Times were different then, I was different then.  That's all that needs to be said!