[ambrosite]

I walked a mile and a half alone to and from kindergarten back in the 1970s (my family lived in the Long Island, NY suburbs). I was allowed to ride my bicycle alone all over town on weekends, and sometimes I traveled so far as to cross into the neighboring towns. I never got lost because I studied road maps as a kid and could even draw them from memory -- to this day I do not use GPS for navigation.

My parents even entrusted me with the care of my 4-year-old sister when I was twelve. The two of us would bicycle into town by ourselves and I would buy her candy at the local shops. Those early feelings of independence are some of my most treasured childhood memories.

Edit: All of this happened, of course, without the benefit of cell phones. I could be completely out of contact with my parents for an entire day, and that was not considered anything unusual. I can only remember one time in all those years when my parents came looking for me, and that was because a powerful storm suddenly broke out in the middle of an otherwise clear day.