Sgt Ed posted that little picture of kids being kids in the 1950's....and I loved the thread of comments. It is true, our childhood's from the 40's thru maybe early 1970's ...would frighten the Modern Child's parents to death. My childhood was in the 1950's and here is just one example of what we were capable of.
Where I grew up (Cleveland, Ohio) was one of the ten biggest cities in the country back then. And like all big cities, it had some tough parts of town. I lived in one of those.
One whole section of the local hospital was dedicated to the Criminally Insane. Violent folks, locked up for life, because they had no sense of right or wrong and were too dangerous to be left in Society.
Well, one of them, killed his Nurse, crippled an Orderly, and escaped. Alerts were put out everywhere, and everyone: Children, Teens, Adults, were all warned to be extremely careful. Do not walk in Alleys. Beware and very careful if you had a garage or shed in your backyard, and do not approach this man. Call the Police, and hide until they get there.
They put up posters all over our neighborhood, and police were everywhere.
Like most ten year olds back then, we had a little group of four tight friends. If you saw the Movie "A Christmas Story" you saw that kind of gaggle of friends, and, by the way, part of my old neighborhood in Cleveland.
So me, Roddy, Billy, and Mike ...all ten years old, all tough little runts, decided to hunt down this guy...and maybe get a reward. It was summer, so every night was free.
We had a meeting to decide what "kit" to take to capture, subdue, and bring this guy to justice. Duck tape to tie him up. We saw how it was done in the movies. And when we practiced on each other, taping our hands behind our backs...none of us could break free.
Tape: Check.
Roddy said we needed rope. Because obviously none of us was big enough to carry a full grown man, once we subdued him. With rope, we could tie the rope around his neck like a leash, and make him walk to the Police Station. We also learned this from watching Westerns. Roddy's Father was in the Navy during WW II, and taught Roddy how to make every knot imaginable. So we knew the guy would not get loose. Nobody could undo a knot made by Roddy.
Rope: Check.
We needed supplies:
Water: Check (Metal Canteens from our Dad's WW II Service)
Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches: Check.
Kept in our knapsacks, also Vintage WW II from our Dad's and Uncles.
And now...weapons. He was a murderer after all, and when we corner him...he might fight to escape.
Knives: Check. Assorted butcher knives, cleavers, and for close quarters we all had our trusty pocket knives we carried every day anyway.
Darts: Check. Yep, those old wooden darts had steel needle tips almost two inches long. And we could peg anything that moved from a distance of twenty feet. We each had a handful of those.
Bats: Check. Baseball was King when I was a kid. And every kid on the Street went to the old Memorial Stadium on Cleveland Indian's Bat Day. Everyone of us got a scaled down Louisville Slugger. Some lucky kids got them signed...but those were to valuable to take on a hunt. So naked bats only.
Masks: Check. Also stolen from Old Westerns, we just took babushkas from Mom's Closet.
Camouflage: Check. We used black and brown shoe polish. Learned that trick from WW II War Movies.
When the sun went down, me, Roddy, Billy and Mike hit the roofs of the sheds in the back alleys. We knew where you could jump from roof to roof, or when you had to walk the fence, and the few places you had to jump back into a dark alley and walk for a bit.
We did not bring flashlights, as that would give us away. We used our superior night vision, and stealth techniques we became expert at after a million games of hide and seek, Cowboy and Indians, or Soldiers caught behind enemy lines.
We were Merril's Maurauders writ small.
On the third night. He was caught hiding in an abandoned shed On West 42nd street. The very same Alley that we planned to search tomorrow. We missed him by one night!
We were disappointed that we wouldn't be the ones getting the reward. And we were so close.
In our minds, he lucked out and the Police got to him first.