content: Maybe you lived in a shitty community.  I was born in the late 80's, and even then and in the early 90's, that kind of life was still available.  I was basically that boy in the photo.  It's not like I lived in a tiny rural community, either.  I lived about 30 minutes by bicycle from the downtown of a major city.  The suburb I lived in had a grid layout; I didn't really know what a subdivision was.  I walked unsupervised to my friends' houses to play.  I walked to school.  I walked to the local library to get books.  I waited eagerly for my father to get home from work. That "idealistic fantasy" was real.  I lived it.