+1 bowfin!
When I was a kid in a small midwestern town a scant few decades ago, there was "nothing to do". No movie theater, no roller rink, no bowling alley, no shooting range, no "hoops", no cable TV or sattelite dish (and only 4 broadcast channels that went off air at midnight), no nature trails, no bicycle path, no campground, no organized activities and NO ADULTS TRYING TO MAKE SURE WE HAD "SOMETHING TO DO".
Amazingly, I never got into trouble outside the standard "you're grounded for a week mister" kind. There were books to read, papers to deliver, RR tracks to hike, berries to pick, odd jobs to do for a little spending money, and all sorts of projects - I was always working on a project of some kind. I spent the better part of one summer making flip-book animations, for which I built a "light-box" for convenience. I built shelves. I raised a terrarium with a sizeable population of Daddy-Longlegs (which I researched by catchinig a ride to the University town nearby and "pilfering" a college level entymology textbook - which was later returned as good as when I got it). I built a raft out of discarded timbers. I learned about electricity and designed & built small experimental motors by hand from scratch, not from a kit. I had a chemistry set, quickly tired of it's limited supplies, and set about distilling my own reagents from household chemicals. I built electronics projects for fun, learned to solder and the info I learned on basic circuits allowed me to repair my dad's expensive base-station CB radio when one of it's diodes blew. I got my hands on one of the first personal computers and learned to program. I bought a 10-speed bike with paper route money and rode long distances in the country while dodging semi-trailers on the 2 lane highway. I bought a rusty, junky 10 inch reflector telescope and completely refurbished it, and spent hours watching the craters on the moon and the moons of Jupiter. I got a decrepit unroadworthy VW bug for my 16th birthday and tinkered it back to perfect health. I got a part-time job after school emptying wastebaskets and wiping blackboards. Aside from all this recreation I had to help my folks in the sizeable family garden, do yard work, and help my dad with his salvage and remodeling projects which included roofing, wiring, masonry, demolition and framing. These were all unpaid, since my folks believed they were spending enough just keeping a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and food on the table. Since mom worked evenings after I was 15 I was primarily responsible for getting dinner on the table most weeknights and still managed to stay on the honor roll (well, most quarters anyway) at school.
None of my recreational activities was planned, organized, funded, overseen nor even encouraged by any adults. "That's too much effort" or "but that costs money" were never obstacles to me, if it was something I wanted to do. It was a challenge to see if I could do it, if I could somehow raise the money for an activity, if I could learn something, make something, achieve something. Honestly there wasn't much choice... it was either that or sit and stare at the four walls until I went crazy...
Oh, wait - I could have committed petty crimes, vandalism, or sold drugs. Strangely, that never occured to me. Guess I'm just not that creative.
Or maybe she was right, but the problem is that there are no more police officers, only law enforcement officers.
