Hey, mister. Would you cross me?

A meal at McDonalds with change for your dollar.

hamburger, fries and small soda.

Or McDonalds HAVING real beef...

Check the oil and get that windshield sir?

"Would you like your packages delivered this afternoon or tomorrow?"

"Wait a minute. I have to get up to change the station."

Re: Hey, mister. Would you cross me?

And the funny thing is - there was some new research in the UK a couple months ago, and it said that child kidnapping cases happened as often then as now - no more often, no less often.

Very interesting nimh. Not a hundred percent surprising, though. I sometimes think about the freedom I had as a kid and wonder how kids are dealing with the lack of it now.

I'm sure that there are kids who just go out and play, as I used to. But there are far fewer than there used to be.

Sigh.

We had total freedom in those days.

My mom used to tell us to "pick up the floor", meaning clean it up (toys)... I never say that and never hear anyone else saying it.

some go on school shootings out of frustration

I'm not an expert on the subject, averner, but I don't believe that school shootings have much or anything to do with kids not being able to go out and play.

Re: Hey, mister. Would you cross me?


Wow, I haven't thought of that in years. I grew up in the suburbs, but we still did that, mostly asking older kids or parents sitting in a front yard.

As to Nimhs mention of abductions, I think he's right, we just didn't talk about it. I was given the usual kid warnings about not talking to strangers or going near cars etc. I remember an incident when I was about 8 and walking home from elementary school. A man pulled over to the curb in gray sedan and asked me if I would like to go for ice cream (about three blocks away in the wrong direction from my house). I said "no thanks" and kept walking, he drove along side of me and said "it's OK I'm going to be a new teacher at your school and I'm just trying to talk to kids about how I can be a good teacher. Come on we'll have fun and I'll drive you home afterwards". My little warning lights went on and I told him that I was at my house and I had to go in. I walked behind a house I was passing and once behind it, where I knew he couldn't see me, I ran like the dickens through the yard, over a fence, out another yard and all the way home. I never told anyone because I thought I would get in trouble for talking to a stranger.

Anyone play hide and seek until it was pitch black? My brother once hide me in an empty garbage can and put the lid on so tight I couldn't get out. The can was in some kind of rack, so I couldn't just knock it over. I ended up having a crying fit until someone heard me. My brother swears it was an accident. :wink:

Scary stuff, Green Witch. Very scary. Heaving a sigh of relief for you these many years later.

Speaking of neighbors, we weren't entirely unobserved on the street. Somehow my parents always knew when I did something I absolutely positively shouldn't do--like go on the roof.

Played hide and seek--in the hallways, basement and backyards. Never got stuck in a garbage can, though. An accident? Uh huh.

Speaking of stuck and of neighbors, I got my head stuck between the bars of a window guard rail. I was screaming, but my mother was at the other end of the apartment. The neighbors heard me and went to tell her.

Remembering something else you're not likely to hear anymore. "Hey, ma! Throw me down a nickel." The ice cream truck was driving up. Kids all over the block would shout up to their mothers to throw down money for ice cream. I have no idea how the mothers were able to distinguish one "hey, ma" from another. But they did. The nickel, btw, was wrapped in a tissue to cut down on bounce.

Now there's a signature line - "the nickel was wrapped in tissue to cut down on bounce".

When I was 12 and 13 I was given to romantic twilight wandering--always on streets with street lights (although there could be a good distance between street lights) and always with the Family Dog on the end of a leash.

One night a car load of rough boys stopped and started urgent invitations for me to get in the car with them. The Family Dog started growling and we were joined by several other neighborhood dogs.

The car left.

I didn't tell my parents because I wanted to be able to continue my walks.

I remember that it was a social custom for little girls, playmates, to hold hands while walking down the sidewalk. That custom seems to have disappeared into oblivion.

Really? My kid (age 6) holds hands with her friends constantly. Seems very common around here.

I loved kick the can. We used an old coffee can and took off the label. It would sit in the center of 2 house's shared driveways thus giving us 2 front, back and side yards to hide in.

Never played kick the can. I'm on the board of the ASPCC.

"Beat the light home" Was one that most the kids in my neighborhood knew well. During the weekends and summer vacations while growing up all us kids were given pretty much free reign. We weren't allowed to leave the subdivision and as long as we made it home by the time it was dark enough for the street lights to start popping on we were alright.

I do think that kids are being a bit over sheltered these days. I understand the fear of kidnapping and all that, but I remember reading somewhere about how there were just as many children abducted then as there are now not any less not any more.

Granted none of us were making home made bombs in our garages either so who's to say?