the guy who hosted America's Most Wanted for several decades. Evidently his 6 year old son was abducted from a mall in FL and murdered.
The comments had incredulous remarks about how the mother could be so careless.
I had to laugh, not about what happened to the boy, but about how *unattended* we Gen X kids were back in the day. I'm sure older generations were, too, but we were more mobile than prior generations and less supervised, as a rule.
In 1977 I got "picked up" by a church bus and taken to a vacation bible school not far from our apt. Nobody gave me permission to go. I was just standing with a friend when the bus arrived, so I got on. I got "saved" that day and had no real clue what being saved was. My parents weren't mad at me for going on the bus with total strangers; they were upset that I had gotten "saved" and they weren't there.
In 1978 I was 8 and my brother 3. We walked to the local theater, perhaps a mile, and watched Star Wars twice in a row, so we were gone more or less all afternoon. My grandmother wasn't mad that we were gone without her knowing where we were, she was mad that we got back after dinner was on the table and it had gotten cold. I got a switch for that.
I remember leaving on a Saturday morning in 1981, at 11 years old, riding my bike to the beach (8 mi each way) with friends, hanging out, going scalloping with just a snorkel and mask in 10' of water, and getting home after the sun had set, never having checked in with my parents at all, and it being no big deal, my parents not even asking me what I had been up to that day but my mom telling me I was filthy and to get into the shower before dinner.
The 1970s and 1980s were just different times.
The comments had incredulous remarks about how the mother could be so careless.
I had to laugh, not about what happened to the boy, but about how *unattended* we Gen X kids were back in the day. I'm sure older generations were, too, but we were more mobile than prior generations and less supervised, as a rule.
In 1977 I got "picked up" by a church bus and taken to a vacation bible school not far from our apt. Nobody gave me permission to go. I was just standing with a friend when the bus arrived, so I got on. I got "saved" that day and had no real clue what being saved was. My parents weren't mad at me for going on the bus with total strangers; they were upset that I had gotten "saved" and they weren't there.
In 1978 I was 8 and my brother 3. We walked to the local theater, perhaps a mile, and watched Star Wars twice in a row, so we were gone more or less all afternoon. My grandmother wasn't mad that we were gone without her knowing where we were, she was mad that we got back after dinner was on the table and it had gotten cold. I got a switch for that.
I remember leaving on a Saturday morning in 1981, at 11 years old, riding my bike to the beach (8 mi each way) with friends, hanging out, going scalloping with just a snorkel and mask in 10' of water, and getting home after the sun had set, never having checked in with my parents at all, and it being no big deal, my parents not even asking me what I had been up to that day but my mom telling me I was filthy and to get into the shower before dinner.
The 1970s and 1980s were just different times.
