I read the book, too....what a dangerous place!
....and it was much as I expected. That town! Like another planet! How hard life must have been during the war in a place like that, so hot and muggy and...well, kind of primitive. No air conditioning, no TV, no computers, kids had to find their own amusement with no hovering parents driving them to the mall, etc. No social workers, no organized sports, though "The Law" figured prominently.
The kids in that town certainly had a lot of freedom, and certainly faced a lot of dangers, too! Guns and knives lying around; strange soldiers all over; kids walking the streets at night (can you imagine a John Henry toddling home at night on his own today???). And unhealthy, all that heat, humidity, and dust. Racial tensions just under the surface. Not to mention medicine, poor John Henry died a horrible death, no antibiotics available yet.