Oddly enough, my thought patterns are very much like this - there's a part of me that wonders if where you live has that sort of direct impact on how you think about things. (Guess I could really go either way on that.)
Anyway, there were no sidewalks, just houses and trees and shrubby things (mostly Mt. Laurel bushes and Sassafras, if I recall.) There were no school buses to take you school - you either walked or rode your bike (or sometimes got a ride if you were lucky.) It sort of boggles my mind thinking about how far we rode to get to school and back (and everyone did it - just rows upon rows of bicycles in the school yard.) You could call it a sort of nostalgia, I guess - I can't even imagine letting my kids do that in today's world.
At least not in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. Too many cars. Too many busy roads. Too many stories of kids getting whisked away by strangers. No place to really ride to.
But, one of my fondest memories of an actual corner involved a little part of town, right across one of the busiest streets. On the corner was a penny candy store known as the Custard Corner. (And for all I know it started with a K, I honestly don't remember - that particular bit of my history is long gone now.) But it was the big thing to do after summer camp got out (always at one of the lakes and also involving bicycles everywhere.) was to run over to the Custard Corner and buy an ice cream cone and a ton of candy and head back to one of the lakes.
Not the healthiest of things I suppose, but as far as hang-outs for kids go, it was all that and a bag of chips, literally.
Totally have Queen's "Bicycle Race" in my head now...
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An interesting theory: "Oddly enough, my thought patterns are very much like this - there's a part of me that wonders if where you live has that sort of direct impact on how you think about things." It would be fun to do some research, wouldn't it?
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