Another trip down memory lane had me pondering the neighbourhood I grew up in. I just don't see the groups of kids hanging and playing like I use to. Where I grew up, public school was geography based, you lived in region
x you
will attend school
y. The upside is, if there were any number of kids in an area, you eventual all crossed paths and interacted. Junior high school (grades 7, 8, and 9) even more so.
About junior high age, when we were sufficiently independent from mom and dad to dodge homework, chores, and just about everything else, there was a number of us in a 10 block radius that started to really hangout. We would congregate near the center of the region and we would often spend hours playing
kick the can (a fancy version of hide-and-seek). Most of the neighbours were pretty cool about having a number of kids hopping fences, cutting through yards and being kids. There was the odd yard that was off limits, for various reasons, but most of the people didn't give us too much hassel. A game would start after supper and would last until after dark (unless someone's mom called).