A lot of the anecdotes in this thread seem to be from more rural areas or out in a small town. I grew up in Minneapolis (born in the 80s) and could do all these

A lot of the anecdotes in this thread seem to be from more rural areas or out in a small town. I grew up in Minneapolis (born in the 80s) and could do all these things in our neighborhood in the summers (except for shooting guns, but I'd get that in the summer with my cousins in South Dakota). I'd meet up with the neighborhood kids around 11 and my mom (or one of their moms) would have lunch and snacks ready for us around 1 or so. We'd just roam around the neighborhood all day playing street hockey or basketball or whatever. ...none of this goes on in my neighborhood anymore. One proximate cause that I think we're missing is that a lot of us moved away, and housing costs are so high that I'm putting off buying a home and my friends are too - or are doing so out in the suburbs. Demographic changeover could be a contributing factor.