[jyl]

When I was a kid, in the late 1960s, we played in the vacant lots all day, rode our bikes all over town, etc and no-one ever thought about our being abducted. We also lived for some years in Paris and I rode the metro all over the city, exploring and just wandering, and no-one thought twice about it. So things were different.

Then again, our bikes did get stolen sometimes, and I even recall committing trespass (snuck into an abandoned army base because we thought there'd be guns), petty theft (I think I stole a Matchbox car), and built illegal explosive devices (we made landmines, blew the clothes off various GIJoes). And since it was the late '60s, presumably there were violent protests, heads being bashed with nightsticks, and Black Siamese Liberation Panthers doing their thing all around us.

So, it was not all peaches and cream back then, old -timer. Maybe you need another shot of Metamucil.