Far from showing an easier time, the nursery rhyme "Boys and Girls go out to Play" refers to a time where children used to work all day, for example at cotton mills and had to play at night.
In fact if you follow the rhyme through, that you only have a halfpenny loaf and you need some more the rhyme seems to be saying that the child seems to work.
The idea of children playing at night - unthinkable these days - seems to be part of our folklore.
There were several Mischief Nights - 4 November and Shrove Monday where children played various tricks throughout the night.
This continued in many places even up to the 20th Century.
The practice, which most people associate with the USA Trick or Treat is follow on from this, to a point when children did roam free.
It refers also, to losing your supper and your sleep.
This seems to suggest that not all children came out, some of them were so tired they couldn't go out to play.
Since supper time is usually about 8 or 9 it suggests how long children worked for.
When did they sleep has to be the question? I'm not sure what the phrase 'come with a call' refers to.
Since it comes after 'come with a hoop' it would suggest that a 'call' was some type of toy, rather than a loud voice that you would use for playing games.
Alternatively it could mean 'come after a call', it's not clear.
So why do we look to such rhymes to summon up the ideal childhood? Maybe because we don't look into the words too closely...