When kids don’t have any other places to go? Yes I’d say it’s a sacrifice. There’s no reason for quiet suburban streets to have speeds as high as 50km/h, which can kill kids if they get hit, especially by oversized american trucks and SUVs.

You open the garage door before you rev your engine, do you understand?

Kids would actually play in quiet neighborhood streets or cul-de-sacs and the like. Drivers would drive slower because they knew kids would be playing, and kids would all get out of the way when one of them heard or saw a car.

"Street Hockey" was a thing.

I'm not sure exactly why, but it's not really a thing anymore. Seems like there are more cars and the quiet neighbourhood streets are more likely to be considered "shortcuts" these days. And where I live, there's little traffic enforcement, so rather than driving the speed limit (or less in areas where kids might be playing), people are happily speeding while playing with screens and devices in their cars.