My Way of Living + running

Years of summer children running barefoot free in the dusty roads ‘till dusk, and the horn of the night train calls them home~
When we were walking at Crescent Beach last weekend we came around the path and there was this engraved rock, sitting right next to the path. A poignant quote, one that I can’t find the author to, it tweaks my heart strings.
It makes me wonder… was your childhood like the quote above, running barefoot free and unencumbered for hours? Did you roam through woods, and streets until parents whistled the kids home for dinner.
We never returned until the street lights came on late at night, and no one worried about us. We slid down hills coated in dried summer grass, using old cardboard boxes as sleds. We were not allowed to go to the corner store, but snuck in there after collecting pop bottles to cash out for candy. We were the last generation to truly feel freedom in our childhood. Swinging just one more time on the tire swing in the woods. Wandering alone all over the neighbourhood, in and out of houses.
Returning home with dusty feet, skinned knees, and sap in our hair from climbing trees. Sleepovers were organized in seconds, no meeting of parents, no cell numbers exchanged, we slept outside under the stars in our backyards.
We roasted hot dogs in fires, fished from community ponds, and learned to swim in public pools. We lived our childhood, every last minute of it was loved.
… until the horn of the night train called us home.