Stuff you did as a child that wouldn’t be contemplated now

I walked to school from the age of 5; it wasn't far but at the age of 6 I was put in charge of a neighbour's 5 year old.
Then from age 7 a longer walk to catch the bus to Junior school. Sometimes I'd walk home, but only with a couple of other girls, about 2 miles through not very nice areas.

Of course we all went out to play, sometimes calling on others some distance away.

Sister and I had a chemistry set,it arrived with various dangerous liquids in it, when they were used up, we went to the local pharmacy and bought some more! Anyone rememember chasing globules of mercury round the lab bench at school?
Strangely enough, DH and I were chatting about this yesterday, having chemistry sets from Father Christmas. I had a toy stove which you could light with methylated spirits 😲. Also remember flicking the mercury around the lab bench at school.

Like others from 7 or 8 onwards, depending on where we lived, I and my younger sister were free to wander off, whether we lived in town or country, to do what we wanted and we were expected to travel quite a long distance to school by bus. like another poster, my sister and I changed the route our parents set for another one, which we preferred. I am not sure our parents ever realised.

Rode a pony round villages in North Yorkshire, for hours at a time. No one knew where I was! Sister and I had a chemistry set,it arrived with various dangerous liquids in it, when they were used up, we went to the local pharmacy and bought some more! Anyone rememember chasing globules of mercury round the lab bench at school?

Sometimes I look back on my early years, and like others can't believe how different it is from the micro managed childhood of today. My brother and I with a nearby friend walked to school, occasionally my mother came with us not always. I was the youngest and I remember trailing behind them aged about 5, as we had to cross a bit of common land, over a railway bridge and alongside a main road to reach our school. I think it took us a good half hour. Our back garden backed on to a stream which fed into a duck pond, beyond that a cricket green and a pub, named "The Cricketers" what else! I was friendly with the daughter of the publicans. I was under the fence from an early age playing around the stream and pond with her and other local children. Again, during the school holidays, we'd be roaming around on bikes and roller skates. Sometimes, led astray by my brother and some older children we'd purchase a platform ticket at our local station and get the train up to Waterloo, London was about 13 miles away, and then come back again. Saturdays it was morning cinema for children, which was in our town, in those days parents didn't drop you off you just arrived. Similarly, going and coming back from Brownies, especially in the dark unaccompanied and hours and hours at the local swimming pool, practically taught myself to swim aged about 7 when I forgot to put my rubber ring on and suddenly realised I was swimming without it When I think of all the swimming lessons I shelled out for mine by contrast.

In my last year at primary school, so I was 11, I cycled alone about 2 miles across a golf course to the swimming pool in the next village, and back about a couple of hours later.This was summer evenings after tea. So it was light, but thinking about it, no telling who was about amongst the bushes and trees, the route was quite isolated.

Funny thing was, up to then, my mother was a very protective, fussy mum, but as I was soon going on to secondary school, (and enjoyed swimming) she must have thought it was time to loosen the apron strings.

From age seven I played out with friends and we would wander far and wide, only returning home at bedtime. We got into many scrapes, including breaking into someone’s home, which was very dilapidated so we assumed was empty, and the door was open, the owner was not amused. And being chased off farmland by a farmer with a shotgun.

I was horse mad as a child and from around 7 or 8 I used to get two buses to the stables and back (walking around half-a-mile down a steep unlit road too), then we'd disappear on the ponies all day through the woods and fields. No-one knew where we were. Sometimes we'd take a shortcut from the stables to the wee village shop by crossing an old railway viaduct which was in a very derelict condition and was supposed to be closed to the public. I shudder to think of it now...

From the age of 5 I went to school on the bus on my own. At home time I would spend my bus money on sweets and walk home. It was a couple of miles!

I would also disappear off on my bike all day and only go home when I was hungry from about the age of 9