Small town living

We really don't have to look very far to see why we Americans are so overweight. When I was young I was thin, very thin. Scaring my mama thin. Scaring the doctor thin. But I ate, in fact I don't eat much differently now than I did then. Now I am overweight, worrying me overweight, worrying the doctors overweight. Mostly, I chalk it up to having quit smoking and long ago having quit ballet. Then I started to think about how I am having more trouble walking at my age than my mother did at this same age. My mother, having been raised on a farm with limited access to automobiles, walked a great deal during her youth. Then I thought about when I was young. I walked to the local shopping center and even to downtown. I walked up to the nearby Texaco and back. Most of these trips were two or three miles round trip - thank you google maps! But, still, I am certain that I walked less than my mother did at a comparable age. Now I am worried about my children. the roads around here are all State numbered highways; it isn't particularly safe to walk anywhere, thanks to the impatient jerks who cannot slow down to the speed limit and simply must pass a left turning vehicle on the shoulder. So, they haven't been able to walk to a friends house, to the craft shop, even to school. Will they be able to walk at all at my age?