[tjansen]

That would definitely not been unusual in Germany in the 80s. Actually many rural German roads didn't even have that small shoulder, you really had to walk either on the street or on the grass. Kids learned how to handle this. There are even popular children's songs from that decade about how to do this, which is to walk on the left side of the road (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La129TFxCGE).

[Izkata]

Nor in the US in the 90s. I don't know where this kid was, but we'd walk in the grass on the other side of the ditch, not practically on the street.