15th street deadened at the beach and the bay. There was a small public doc on the bay. I didn't have a surf board but dad would rent me one of those inflatable, air mattress type things. I would take that in the surf, and paddle it around in the bay too. Around the boats that were anchored out there. Amazing isn't it? The folks trusted me enough to just go out on my own a "Play"? Imagine what it would be like down there now?
I talked to Mom about this quite a bit. Even tho most parents let their kids out to play, she would let us go into pretty heavy surf and go to the bay unsupervised. She told me that she had 3 boys and was determined that she would let us be strong boys. I guess they didn't have a lot of child abductions back in those days, but even so we got to do some pretty awesome stuff. Dad had been a lifeguard, and I was a competition swimmer and Jr lifeguard, so body whomping at The Wedge might have worried her, but she still let us do it. On the other hand, she taught us all to cook, sew, wash dishes, etc. She was determined that she not have "dependent" boyz.
Unlike so many of today's parents. Seems we either get helicopter parents or the kind that give the kid $20 and tell them to run along. I'm glad I still see parents involved in kid's sports tho. One of my grandsons is in Brazilian Jujitsu, even tho he also loves his Xbox games. Recently gave him my deer rifle, tho they all shoot, he seems to be the only one that wants to hunt. He even got my son-in-law interested in taking him turkey hunting.