A Dangerous Stream of Consciousness

If I let my fifth grader walk to school by himself — approximately one half-mile, crossing exactly one busy four-lane intersection with a traffic light — I would be branded as an irresponsible, bad parent.

But when I was in third grade, I can remember walking to my elementary school. I made the 20 minute trek by crossing only a single two-lane street.

Sometimes, my mother would call my friend Jimmy’s mom. They lived along the way and he’d be waiting outside to join me on the trip. However many times, I walked unaccompanied.

Jimmy’s older sister Jill (a fifth grader) showed us a “shortcut” that led through the scrub brush and woods at the far end of the school complex’s athletic field, right into their backyard. When Jimmy asked if I wanted to hang out, it was fun to cut the post-school trek into practically no travel time. The consequences were a scraped elbow or a sapling branch whacking you in the forehead. Poison ivy was also a danger if you were wore shorts in the spring.

Walking together, we got bolder and cut through the scrub at the far end of the field to see where it went. Our destination was the backyards on Meade Court, which I passed on the route to my house.

You could see and hear a dog barking frantically behind a closed screen door as strangers emerged from the…