[CCIP]

Yep, though it's also true a lot of kids these days (and in earlier days) are indeed sheltered from it.

Still, reminds me of sitting around smoking cigars with my best buddy recently... we're both both born in the 80s, I'm from Russia and he grew up in the hills of Tennessee - and we couldn't get over how similar our experiences of growing up doing stupid, dangerous, and completely amazing crap were so similar! ...and yet so strange to the people that surrounded us in our current lives as young working professionals in suburbia.

I wouldn't trade it for anything myself - I would say that one of the greatest things about my upbringing is that I got to both live "the streets" and learn the tough realities of city life, and at the same time I spend plenty of time living with relatives the countryside, knowing what it's like to live simple life with simple people, and take joy from connection with the land and with nature.

I think there's lots to be said for a frugal, tough upbringing. Try as you might, you can't learn that stuff in school.