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I see quite a few, but I live in a very quiet suburban community and seeing kinds out and about the community is not weird. In fact, they often leave their stuff (like bikes, etc.) on the street, and then could pick it up next day (or their parents do). Nothing happens to them or their stuff. When I lived in CA, however, I don't think I ever did see kids just roaming around - given how many homeless camps I had in immediate vicinity, it's no wonder.
It's not comparable to my childhood, but that was different times in different country, and having 8 year old walk 15-20 mins to school through the neighborhood was normal (how would one get to the school otherwise anyway? nobody owned a car and public transport didn't exist within the neighborhoods, and there was no such thing as a "school bus") and leaving the teen like 12 yo for a whole day to care for oneself was also completely normal (and inevitable - the parents are working, grandparents live far away, there's no such thing as a babysitter for teens, and nobody has the money to pay anyway if it were a thing). Sometimes it led to kids doing extremely stupid things, which occasionally (quite rarely, fortunately, on my experience) led to bad long-term consequences, but mostly everybody survived fine.
That was one of my chores for a long time. You couldn't just go to the store and buy what you want. You had to stand in line (not always, but a lot of times). And adults have work. So who stands in lines a lot? Kids and retirees. I'm not sure at what age exactly it started, but likely sometime around 10.
I also spent a lot of my time outside with friends (without any adult supervision) - though not as much as others, I was an introverted nerd (still am) so I preferred my books to the company of other stupid kids, but occasionally my parents kicked me out, or my friends convinced me to come with them to play or do something stupid. So a lot of time without any adult supervision, whether family or not. That was the standard.
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