I had to smile reading your post. I think our childhoods were in very different places. With mine? My parents had the only gas station in the area. The nearest house was about 8km away. The nearest town about 16km. Getting to school .. by bus.

Running away? I tried that once when I was 5 or 6 years old.. probably walked about 4km... got tired and walked home. Freedom sounded great but I soon learned it wasn't :)

My parents also said when I was 2 years old I also ran away. But at that time I was living in a city... made it about 4 blocks... and the police picked me up. Don't remember that one though.

Thanks for the interesting article.