“Neighborhoods had a status and income mix. You had judges living in the same area as plumbers. I knew of no kids who went to private schools. The caliber of the public schools was well-regarded.”
Michael Wade remembers his childhood.
We had a “streetlights rule” in our house. Once the streetlights came on, the game or gathering broke up and mothers in the neighborhood came out on the porch to ensure kids got home.
I also remember walking to the market for something to drink. We walked down an alley and sometimes neighbors would meet us at the edge of their backyard and give us money to pick something up for them at the market - including cigarettes (the store owner made us tell him who the smokes were for as a way of policing the purchase).
My parents had a car. My mother would either drop dad off at work or, if mom wasn’t planning on going anywhere, dad would would take the car. There were men in the neighborhood who walked to and from work every day and families that didn’t have a car.
My mother would go visiting in the afternoon once or twice a week; she would stop at the houses of elderly neighbors to check in on them and make sure they didn’t need anything.
If we got into trouble anywhere in the neighborhood, my mother knew by the time we got home. It was not pleasant (and she NEVER took our side).
Great memories.