People did not think to entertain their offspring in those days, or supervise their games, or shepherd them from one enriching activity to another. At least people in Lower Alabama did not. School afternoons were joyful, free from the tyranny of bells and adult interference. We raced on roller skates through the pine-splintered light. We waded in the creek, the warm water just beginning to cool in the lowering sun. We wandered the woods or the neighborhood with no particular plan, just to see what fascination might reveal itself or what friends might spill forth with an idea for something to do.