Every several months something like this is posted on HN, and I log in to post a couple of things: 1. During the baby boom, there was a lot of intermittent sur

Every several months something like this is posted on HN, and I log in to post a couple of things: 1. During the baby boom, there was a lot of intermittent surveillance. Fewer mothers worked, and every ten or fifteen minutes one might give a look out the back window to see what was going on. This was not intrusive, but it kept down the mischief level on the one hand and the anxiety level on the other. 2. People on HN have a way of talking about suburbs as if they are all cul-de-sacs surrounded by highways. I grew up in a close-in suburb of a large Midwestern city. I was three blocks from school and library, two blocks from grocer, baker, and five-and-dime. In sixth grade, after a transfer, I did take the bus to and from school, though I could and sometimes did walk. Junior high was a mile and a quarter, usually reached by bike.