Posted by fayeroe on August 6, 2010, at 18:02:40
In reply to Re: Lessons from Bob, posted by sigismund on August 6, 2010, at 17:30:13
> I heard this writer on the radio. She was great.
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> "Free Range Kids"
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> In Japan kids of 6 catch the trains.I think that Stella could ride a train alone now. She will be 7 in November. King, who is 4, would be ordering everyone around. He is very full of himself. :-)
A blind man got on at one station, people helped him to his seat, after a few stops he pulled what looked like a fob watch out of his pocket and did something. At the next stop he walked to the door and there was a rail official to help him off. That is infrastructure.In the fight that was going on over the teen sailing alone I remember three or four people relate how they took the subway in NY when they were 7-9 years old. The gasps from the "helicopter" parents could be heard round the world!
That is fantastic that Japan has a system that facilitates the blind man to go wherever he wants. It would never happen here. United Airlines lost a little boy about 6 weeks ago. 9 years old. Put him in the "kiddy" lounge and left him there all day. He called his parents with his cellphone after being in there so long.......
I thought this was a big deal when I was a kid. I had to start working in the fields and the barn with the cattle when I had my 9th birthday. I thought it was really something. I went straight to work after school and always tried to best my previous time for having work done when my dad got home to help me finish up. We did have cow dogs and that made a world of difference because all I had to do was whistle for them and the cows would throw their tails straight up and run for the pens! Our dogs were heelers. I also had a horse that I rode down into the big pastures if "someone" didn't come up. It usually meant she had a calf and was not bringing it up.
The biggest deal was letting me ride, by myself, three miles to an elderly man's house to borrow books. I rode the mule bareback and carried a big "tow sack" for the books. I thought I had definitely arrived!
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poster:fayeroe
thread:956448
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20100806/msgs/957570.html