Or a place people go who enjoy hiking, bird-watching, photography, etc. I've been to a number of places like that and managed to do so without smoking weed or drinking.
ETA: or making out. My mama raised a goody-two shoes. :innocent:
You and me both Koshka! Really I don't know obviously what the general demographic is here at Web Sleuths but I think one of the most fascinating parts of this group is what a wide variety of people we have here. As much as I'm sure bad things can and do happen on trails and in the woods I wonder if some of the differences in opinion are a matter of where we're from and where we were raised, rural vs urban or whatever. Certainly many large cities have built up nature areas, large parks within cities or river walks and such but those places are full of people all the time (and crimes still occur. I remember a murder on the Detroit Riverwalk during Gay Pride weekend that was held there and despite loads of lighting and even those safety thingies you see on a lot of college campuses and public places that are like little lights with a button or phone or some such you can alert if in danger).
But in smaller towns too, and even places much, much larger than Delphi, there's often not much for young people to do. I grew up in a suburb of a metro area in a place I'd still call small though much, much larger than Delphi and teens pretty much had the library (who have since cut hours so drastically as so many other libraries have had to do but one of these libraries is across the street from the high school so huge hangout) and the Barnes and Noble basically. And near the high school is a newer athletic complex and a really nice trail and some tennis courts and a ball park. There's not much else to do. And while the internet was around and getting big in my own teens, I sure remember how much time I spent outside growing up and how often I was all over town on bikes or walking with friends without supervision. And that wasn't all that many years ago either! I'm sure I'm older than some here but still!
Of course the lack of things to do also means you find folks doing less than savory things in the woods too, definitely. I seem to recall trying cigarettes with a friends in the woods myself around Libby and Abby's age! Teenagers sure aren't saints but I think most parents know that. I'm absolutely sure A&L's families have had loads of talks with them about safety, about drugs and drinking and sex and all of that. But they just genuinely seem like young girls who were looking for something to do that day and I don't think their families at least knowingly really thought they had any reason to worry. Although my gosh wouldn't this have been a far better ending if the worse thing that had happened in those woods was the girls trying some alcohol or cigarettes or kissing boys? Breaks my heart to think about it. And come to think of it I'm probably closer to age of their parents than them and I think if I lived in Delphi (frankly I feel the same way about my own home town), I'd let them go to the trails. They seemed like sweet kids to me and I'm sure their parents knew them well enough to know what the risks were (reasonably. I know some parents are indeed clueless or in denial about what their kids are up to but these girls don't seem like the type anyhow). Anyway, all my opinion. But I guess I also don't really see why someone in that community or so many like it would assume the only folks who go to the trails are up to no good. That and I think I'd be happy to have my kids out enjoying nature versus glued to a screen. And ha worth saying even within this group we've been down the discussion of the dangers of social media and the internet so it's kind of like you can't win. Some people see danger and bad things everywhere but at some point you gotta live your lives and let your kids be kids.
It's a damn shame we have to worry that while our kids are being kids some ******* may attack or kill them.
Edit- I had no idea the word I used was censored here. Think someone else used the same word ages ago in this thread but just wanna say it was not half as bad as word as it looks lol though such a word would also be more than warranted.
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