Loved growing up in the country. Largest town I lived in until aged 13, had a population of about 600 people. Then moved to a larger town with about 30 000 people and now living in the city. Unfortunately my kids wont have the freedom that I had as a kid. The telephone system we used, was still the lever swinging type, where you had to ask an operator to patch you through to another number, and every 3 minutes she'd log into your call and tell you how long you've been on the phone already.
Rules while growing up were:
1 Kids should be heard playing outside, not be seen in the company of grown-ups.
2 When the street light come on at night, your arse better be home.
We used to throw clay missiles with stick, ride our bicycles all over town, get bust stealing the neighbour's fruit off the trees, going bass fishing in the towns' dams and just generally getting up to mischief. Nowadays its smartphones, tablets, internet, X-box or Play station, satellite TV, and F@*k knows what else.