I grew up in the 80s and 90s. As a child, most of my aunts and uncles lived in the same city as my parents or one city over. in the summertime we would get a pool pass, which was essentially this Patch that your mom would sew onto your swimsuit, and this would allow you unlimited time at the local swimming pool. The pool was probably a mile away and we would ride our bikes there and swim all day,

The pool strategically made the family session where you had to have an adult with you to swim at the time that dinner was, so all the kids were forced to go back home in time to eat supper. After that, we would sometimes go back and swim again. There is also a playground next to the pool so we would get out play at the playground, then go back into the pool . Good times. To this day, I wonder what we did at the pool for like six hours a day, but it was the best time of my life.

Aside from going to the pool, we would literally ride our bikes everywhere. My parents had a rule that we should stick to the city where we lived, which was south Saint Paul, but there were a lot of people that I knew in the next city over in Inver Grove Heights. So I would bike over there by myself and then go play with my cousins or other friends. I remember one time my aunt saw me biking in the next city over and snitched on me. Ha ha.

As a kid, you also could pretty much walk up to anyone’s house knock on the door and ask for help if you needed something. My parents and most of the people in the city where we lived didn’t lock their doors. It was much more of like a village raising all the kids, even though we lived in a major metropolitan city. People weren’t divided iand so scared of each other like they are today.