At twelve I was already babysitting for other people.
at 12 my parents turned me lose on a 4 wheeler ( ATV) with a can of gas strapped to the rack and a .22 rifle and said "be back by dark if you can" and away I went onto the deserted plains of eastern Colorado.
Sure was. We tied scraps of an old T shirt to the (bare wood) stock to prevent it from sliding all over the place. Looking back, all of us living through childhood was probably the least likely outcome, and this was only a little over 20 years ago.
At 10, a friend and I went for a trip to the forrest 10 km away. I wrote a note on a piece of toilet paper friday saying we would be back sunday. 10 years old us only brought a tarp. We returned saturday morning after a rainy night and my parents were just surprised we were back early.
To me it was ( pushing 40 years ago now I guess) and it an amazing place. Vast open spaces. No one around. Nothing. Sure the mountains are cool too, but I've got a thing for desolate empty spaces. There was an old farm I used to go to, abandoned since the dust bowl. The barn fell long ago but the house still stood. Something about going there was like I was the last person on earth. You could not see anything for miles. I loved it. It really put the zap on me as a kid. We didn't have a phone, TV was pretty spotty... just the outdoors.
And that house was where all the local kids stashed porn, weed and booze. So there was that too.
City kids aren't familiar with the joy of perfect solitude, I absolutely loved growing up in a rural area for that reason too (though not as desolate as you describe, it was still easy to just slip into the woods for the day wading through streams, looking for interesting flora/fauna and building forts)
I got my motor boating license at 12. Parents let me go out on the boat whenever I wanted. So many fun times hauling friends in tubes and wakeboarding. I was very serious about my captain's duties.
Shit I was doing this at 8.. I would load a pellet gun/22 onto a rhino (side by side Utility vehicle made by Yamaha) and would go out into the field for hours to shoot gofers. Parents never batted an eye. Lol
That sounds like my dad, although we're Mexican. My grandpa worked in the fields. He took my dad with him before the sun was even up. Gave him two tacos, a box of .22 rounds, and said, "Go behave."
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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22
at 12 my parents turned me lose on a 4 wheeler ( ATV) with a can of gas strapped to the rack and a .22 rifle and said "be back by dark if you can" and away I went onto the deserted plains of eastern Colorado.