I do not remember adults ever and I mean ever, going trick or treating with children in the 1960’s. Nor do I remember any adults dressing in costumes. At that time it was entirely a children’s one-evening holiday, period.
The streets were full of children on Halloween. There were a lot more children then, most kids I knew had two or more siblings. It was usual for the older kids to supervise the younger ones, whether they were your own siblings or not.
My memory is very poor, but I do know I had walking adventures when I was 4 or 5, at least if accompanied with my one-year-older sister. This was in the mid 1950’s. I can’t recall Halloweens specifically, but think it was small groups of kids without adults. A few years later I went biking alone on trips of several miles.
I was surprised in the late 1990’s to learn that my 9-year old nephew wasn’t allowed to go alone to a playground around the corner.
NW side of Chicago in the 60s - always walked to school about 1/2 mile away and across 1 busy street (Belmont) - w/ a crossing guard. BUT - I was the youngest of 4 kids, and was always walking w/ my sisters.
Same for trick-or-treating. We went out w/o parents, but if I was 5, my oldest sister was 9.
Our rules were geographic. I remember at first I was allowed to go up and down our block on our side of the street. Then I recall being able to ride my bike all the way around the block! The next limit was to go anywhere w/o crossing a “busy” street (in Chicago, a square 1/2 mile on each side.)
The 4 of us kids would ride our bikes or take the bus a mile or so to go swimming. But again, I was the youngest of 4. I doubt I really went much of anywhere totally by myself before I was 8. I remember walking to/from the piano teacher’s house - that was maybe 3 blocks, crossing no busy streets.
Heck, when I started kindergarten I was four, and walked home by myself.
I was only a couple of years older when I went trick-or-treating alone. And I used to cover a LOT of territory.
About 4 or 5, or as soon as I could walk without assistance and had somewhere to go. It was the early 80s. I stayed within sight of the house most of the time, because the neighbors all had kids around the same age as myself and my siblings, but my mother wouldn’t have known if I’d run off.
I walked back and forth to kindergarten when I was five. That would have been, oh, 1976.
When we moved between semesters, I would walk to the bus stop alone. We also had a large woods behind the house and a dirt road in front, so as long as I was with my neighbor friend (just a year or two older), I had pretty much complete run of the place.
I was probably 10 when I was allowed to take the town’s bus the first time by myself, but by then I’d ridden it so often with my mom that I regarded that as trivial.
Born in 1943. Where we were and how we were raised, I knew the rules and did not break them. So the last time I was chased down was one of my earliest memories. I was a toddler and as I was waking through the kitchen with no lights on in it, a water line under the sink let go and blew the doors open and scared me bad. As I went running out the front door which was open, just a screen door, screaming, “It consplodded, it consplodded.” in full on terror. Dad went to shut of the water and Mom caught me about 3 houses away. Some of this was related to me later.
Last time I was ever chased down.
When the rules were lifted for me and for siblings as they grew up, we still obeyed them when living at home or were visiting their home. We made our kids obey them also when we were at their house even if due to changing times the rules in our own houses were a little different. 7 siblings with way different ideas on how to raise kids and the changing times that were different were never pushed when we were at the parents house. They were great with the grand kids because they were treated just as we were and also used any added rules/request we asked for when we were not present. But they were not baby sitting grandparents in a general way. It was always a special deal when & if they would take care of our kids while we went someplace near or far.
I was so lucky for the parents I had, when & were we were, that when I see the stories that are way too common today, I can only shake my head because I do not understand many of the so called parents of today. They can make babies but are in no way parents.
YMMV but I am the luckiest one in this regard that I know. IMO
I was born in 1965. We lived in a very quiet subdivision on what was then the far western suburbs of Chicago, and so, traffic really wasn’t an issue at all. My aunt and uncle lived three blocks away from us, and I was regularly walking (or riding my bike) over there, by myself, to visit my cousins by the time I was seven or eight. The church school that I attended was miles away, so walking or bicycling there was out of the question.
During the summer of '74 (when I was nine), my cousin (who was 10) and I spent much of the summer riding our bikes all over the area, just the two of us. This was, as I remember it, completely unremarkable for kids of our age.
Born in 1977. At age four I was allowed to cross the street myself to go to my best friends’ (brothers a year older and a year younger than me) house, though for the first year or so my mom watched out the window until the street was safely crossed. The three of us were also allowed to play with other kids in the housing complex, usually without adult supervision, as long as we stayed together.
I wasn’t allowed to leave the neighborhood without an adult until I was eight or nine, though, even with a friend.
Born in 1961. In my earliest years, I didn’t know anyone my age. I hung out with my mom as we traveled around the country. By the time I reached school age, I was kind of a little weirdo with more adult mannerisms than kid ones. But starting at 6, I could walk around the block (no crossing the street) with the neighborhood kids. I could go to Debbie’s house four houses down or the Bordens next door. Trick or treat was always me and the Borden girls together. No grownups. The year before at 5, my mom who was 9 months pregnant took me around. Needless to say, we didn’t go very far or very long.
Around the neighborhood; about 3 or 4.
Taking the bus into the “big city” (either Wilkes-Barre or McKeesport) say around 8 or so. (Music lessons and such)
At 16 I rode down to Daytona myself. Well, with the club I belonged to at the time. But still …
Times were different then and I was different from most kids my age. I would never recommend such a thing today.
I was five when I was allowed to walk to kindergarten but it was out of the backyard, across a footbridge over an irrigation ditch (not even a canal) and through the back gate of the elementary school that also had the K. The girl next door was also attending and we’d pair up for the walk there and back.
One day when we got back home, we told (I forget whose) mom about a man who tried to grab us and pull us under the bridge. She got real excited about this for some reason and called the other mom who also got excited. Luckily before they called the cops they talked to the teacher who said, "That sounds an awful lot like Billy Goats Gruff, which I read to the class yesterday.
Born 1967. I remember walking to and from the bus stop (about 1/4 mile each way) to get to kindergarten. That was no thang as far as I can remember, which would mean I was running loose before age 5. I do remember having friends in the neighborhood I lived in before I was in school, and riding bikes and such–so at least by age 4. But the world was huge then, and hills were very steep. It is entirely possible I was being supervised but was not aware of it, and so I don’t remember it, because I’d have had no idea what supervision was. I was just being a kid on a bike trying to outrun a pack of vicious dachshunds or whatever.
At some point when I was still a fairly new parent I asked mom, “When do you know it’s alright to just let them run off for the day?” Her answer: “Whenever you decide you’re done with them.”
Not every day, but more than once I walked the half mile to and from school by myself in kindergarten, age 6. It was not that big a deal. A few other kids my age walked to school, too.
Definately remember playing around with kids on my street minus adult supervision when I was 5 or less, my older (by 3.5 years) brother might have been there. IN particular I remember skinning my knee and seeking help at a nearby house with a helping hand sign to get it cleaned up so I know there were no adults around.
Walked 1/2 mile home from school every day by myself starting first grade. Was playing in the canyons around town probably by 3rd-4th grade?
I grew up in a tiny rural town in northern Maine, hundreds of miles from any sort of real civilization. By the time I was 9 or 10, in the summer time, I’d leave the house at 8:00 in the morning and my parents wouldn’t be reminded of my existence again until I came home after the street lights came on.
I remember walking to a neighborhood grocery store when I was four. I vividly remember it because one time the paper bag tore and all of the groceries fell out on the sidewalk, an a man I didn’t know helped me pick them up.
We lived outside of town when I was in kindergarten, so I had to take the bus. We moved before first grade, and even though I usually took the bus, I did walk home on occasion.
I trick or treated by myself when I was eight. I don’t remember before that.
As far as to walking/bicycling to town or business district, about 9 or 10.
As far as playing outside in the general area ( say 1/4 mile radius from the house ) unsupervised, about 6 years old.
Born '83. When I was born we lived in an odd little row of 4 houses miles from the village, I was allowed to go round to the kids three houses down as far back as I remember. I was taken to school, it being several miles, but kids in the village generally walked, except the very smallest. The school would also let kids walk to the village shop as a reward, that would have been age 7-8.
At 8, we moved to a village proper. At that point, I wasn’t allowed to be in the house by myself, just if my older brother (11) was there. I was, however, allowed to walk to a friend’s house at the other side of the village, and the two of us just roamed freely until we were due back. I was also, weirdly, allowed to walk to my parents’ work alone, which was over 2.5 miles away, so long as I didn’t go on the main road.
By 11, I was getting dropped off at the train station in the morning, to get myself to school 10 miles away. My brother was there on the train (though normally in another carriage) but the half mile at the other end was my problem, as he went to a different school. By that point I was allowed to go where I wanted, stay in the house alone, or get the bus to anywhere, so long as I was back for dinner.
By 16 I was allowed to go to Glastonbury festival, at the other end of the country, with a friend and no ticket, though my mother was pretty annoyed about Dad giving that one the OK…
My parents were pretty lax by the standards of the day/place, but not to the extent that it caused much comment.
I honestly have no idea. I have an older brother so most everything I did was with him. I had friends in the neighborhood but I don’t remember some momentous occasion where suddenly I was able to visit them un-accompanied (and anyway, I was usually with my brother when I hung out with them). I was never allowed to leave my neighborhood and never would have.
When I was 16 I got my license and was allowed to go anywhere I wanted, even to downtown Cleveland for shows, by myself.