Red Skelton tells the running away from home joke as part of his opening monologue in Smokeless Sunday on the Red Skelton Show. Supposedly, his little boy Richie is telling his sister Valentina, (in his Mead Widdle Kid voice):
“They don’t love me no more. I took my cookies, put them in a knapsack, tossed it over me shoulder, and started walkin’.”
“After a little while, a police officer asked me what I was doin’, so I told him.”
He asked me, “Why are you walking around the block, then?”
Richie answered, “I’m not old enough to cross the street!”