https://t.co/Xnr8K4qiGZ

I grew up in a little town in northern Iowa. About 3,100 people lived there then.

It was a different time.

Both sides of my family had lived in my hometown, or on farms a few miles out, for more than one hundred years.

My grandpa had a business on Main Street that my dad took over when grandpa got sick.

I knew nearly everybody.

There were no “helicopter parents” then and the only teenagers who had cars were older boys who bought them used and beat-up and liked to tinker under the hood.

I walked everywhere — to school, to Girl Scouts meetings, to piano lessons, to babysitting jobs, to Friday night football games at the high school, to the movie theater on Saturday afternoons. We all did.

I walked even in the dark, though I was sometimes afraid.

But I knew who lived in just about every house that I passed. It was a comfort.