05/24/2026
Head-to-toe filthy, popsicle melting down a fist, dog at your side — and not one single adult concerned about any of it.
The dirt was everywhere — in your ears, under your fingernails, somehow in your mouth even though you couldn't explain how. You wiped your hands on your jeans because that's what jeans were for. The dog had been wherever you'd been and eaten whatever you'd eaten and nobody scheduled a vet visit. You came inside when the light changed, got hosed off on the porch, and did it all again tomorrow.
We weren't unsupervised. We were free — and there's a difference the generation that grew up outside understands completely.