I'm 52 and I grew up in a somewhat rural area in New England. We owned about 50 acres and there was a lot to explore just on our property. Also, I didn't think anything of riding my bike several miles to go visit a friend. We would then ride from there to a convenience store or go wandering into the woods to see what we could break. Actually, I remember doing that as young as age 6 or 7. We'd mess around in abandoned quarries, go for hikes up local hills, go swimming in a local creek, pick and eat wild blackberries, go into the swamp and try to catch snakes, wander into an abandoned dairy barn that was full of broken glass, rusting metal and rotting wood etc. In the summer this was every day. In the winter I would go sledding or XC skiing basically all day in weekends. I was never in the house during the day after age 8 or 9 if the weather was reasonably OK. I wasn't really allowed to watch TV, so I read Hardy Boys books if I was stuck at home. My mother mounted a large bell on the side of the house that she would ring at dinner time and I'd go home if I was in earshot. That sounds corny but it's 100% true. This whole childhood is completely different from how my kids grew up here in suburban Chicagoland.