Great thread. I have fond memories of playing till dark. The older neighbor boys and I would walk a mile to a little grocery, picking up pop bottles along the way. Ours was always paid for by our returns. End of summer LLWS, couple weeks before school started. Mom would drop us off, made sure we had some extra change for snacks and that all important dime for the pay phone. It seemed so ideal especially for boys('60s). Not quite Mayberry, but it seemed pretty close.
One memory (unpleasant), was some stuff that happened, that could have been much worse. I recall being 7 years old taking my first swimming lesson at the Y. A 20 something instructor tried to get the 7 y.o. boys to go skinny dipping, as he was. All refused, but nobody said a word. There was an older man there too, he didn't coherence any of the boys, but he let it continue.
Next class, I threw a major fit, begging Mom not to make me go. She wanted to know what happened, as I had been excited to learn to swim. As I told her she stopped the car turned around for home, think we stopped at a soda fountain on the way home(one of Mom's ways to make things better). Dad talked to me that night to have me tell him exactly what happened, told me he'd teach me to swim. He reassured me I did the right thing, not to worry because right was always right.
Dad was a supporter of Rotary, UW, and the Y, as were many of his friends. The next day he was at the Y talking with whoever was in charge. True to his word, I never took swimming lessons from anyone but him. Mom called the other parents to tell them what happened, every kid was pulled out.
Dad and I did do a lot of activities at the Y after that, father & son breakfasts, bowling but never swam there.
I'm sure both men were fired, but probably just moved somewhere else. Of couse there were no predators then, so who knows what these guys did somewhere else.
Are things better, how do we know?
Edit to add: My best buddy and I in our Jr. Sr. years always had our shotguns in our cars, during hunting season. The Vice Principal knew it, he also knew he had a standing invite to go hunting on the way home with us.
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