Anyone who grew up in that era knows it was a nicer time when children could play outside safely past dark {or until dinner} without supervision or walk to school by themselves.
I know what you mean about "nicer time", but bad things happened to children then, too, as this movie portrays. If you were a child in the early 60s, I'm sure you remember being warned not to accept rides from strangers and the like. Our parents knew there were dangers, but somehow managed to avoid paranoia. That was better, I agree. :-)
(IMO, things changed because of the 24-hour news cycle and now the internet, which magnify and publicize every bad thing that happens anywhere, and the widespread entry of mothers into the workplace. I'm not criticizing the latter - oh, no, I'm not stepping on that landmine! - just pointing out that, when mothers were home during the daytime, there was a greater sense of control over children. Even when the kids were out of sight, as they often were, mothers had a sense of generally where they were and who they were with. With greater geographic separation comes a sense of loss of control, which leads to insecurity and worry.)
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