Home life in the '60s was significantly different then it is now in this regard. If you were a boy and say over the age of fourteen, more than likely, save for the school night and weekend curfews, you could pretty much go where you wanted without being questioned. Don't get me wrong, some parents were strict as hell. It's just that most weren't.
My father and stepmother, for example, I believe enjoyed the peace and quiet of my brother and I not being around. They put up little resistance when we told them we were going out for a while. My father rarely asked where we we going. He would simply dismiss us with the wave of a hand, then resume watching television.
My stepmother, on the other hand, would ask for our destination, but would usually lose interest around mid-explanation and wander away.
Let me say this right off the bat.We never ever stayed inside either after school, on the weekends, or during summer vacation. No matter what the weather, cold days or hot, rain, sleet, or snow, blizzards, hurricanes, earthquakes, whatever, we were out in it.
A lot of mothers didn't work back then, and no boy or teenager wanted to hang around the house until they gave you a chore to do or made you open your school books and study.
As an aside, I found out later that this same philosophy worked in the army. If you had free time, get the hell out of the barracks.
On rare occasions, my brother and I committed the ultimate taboo of spending the night out. We would tell my stepmother that we were staying at a friend's house, while the friend would tell his parents the same thing. Ultimately, we'd end up outside on a warm summer evening (we didn't use this scam when it was cold) with the entire night ahead of us.
As I said, those were innocent days. The few times we spent the night out we weren't bothered by a soul. We'd wander around the community empowered by the knowledge that we were out long after we should have been. We'd go to the elementary school playground and play on the monkey bars (I should note that all the school playgrounds had a concrete or asphalt surface back then). We'd hike to the shopping centers just to see them devoid of life.
Usually around two in the morning the novelty would wear off and we'd start looking for a place to sleep. Once we slept in the grass by the school. Another time we snuck in to my own home's basement to sleep on the floor. It was always around this time that I wondered why I was sleeping on the ground or a damp cold floor and not my warm comfortable bed. I'm sure my brother and friends were thinking the same. Nonetheless, a month or so later we'd do the same thing again. Such was our insatiable desire for adventure.
There was one time in the day when I would go home. It was when I was hungry. My stepmother wasn't much of a cook, but there always something on the table at dinner time. Those were the days when the family sat around the table and talked or, as with our family, just kind of sat around and stared at each other. Occasionally, when we had hot dogs or sandwiches, we would be allowed to set up a wobbly food tray and watch T.V. in the dining room. But that was rare. Usually our house was pretty quiet at dinnertime.
On summer days, when we'd go exploring the nearby woods, we'd pack a lunch and brown bag it just to avoid the going home down time.
We lived in a three bedroom end of row house. My father and stepmothe had the master bedroom. My younger brother had somehow finagled his way into the second largest bedroom with a side and rear window. I had the smallest bedroom with one window facing the back alley. On summer nights, the windows stayed open (except my father's room, where there was a window air conditioner). My brother and I each had a room fan. His was a large stand up model, mine was small enough to fit on the night stand (are you noticing a pattern here?).
Most of the row homes in our community, and in most communities, didn't have air conditioning then. We just made the best of the summer heat. Fans worked most of the time. When they didn't, you suffered (and sweated) in silence.
It's crazy to think that there were nights when we kept the back door open, letting a screen door draw in the air. Our neighbors did it too, and I never once heard of anyone being burglarized.
What sounds reckless by today's standards was commonplace back then. Only later in the decade, with a war raging and civil disturbances breaking out, was it necessary to batten down the hatches and face a harsher reality.