# What were you really into when you were a child?



## Bretrick (Nov 25, 2021)

At every opportunity I would go up into the hills surrounding my home town. 
Away from people, catching snakes and frogs, trying to pick up echidnas, going out onto the dam on my homemade raft, built with boy scout skills. Loved my childhood in the thickly wooded West Coast of Tasmania.
It is a delight that has stayed with me my whole life.


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## officerripley (Nov 25, 2021)

Reading and watching TV for me; it was an escape from a disfunctional home life and a lack of friends. I still enjoy both and still need them.


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## WheatenLover (Nov 25, 2021)

Playing outside, riding my bike, going to the library, reading, exploring the woods next to one house we lived in, picking blackberries, exploring the AF Bases. We lived beside woods in Germany, so we'd go exploring, have picnics, and wrap blankets around trees to make a house to play in, and we picked lots of blueberries.  In Germany, there was a huge hill behind the base housing, and we'd play King of the Hill, and have a lot of rolling down it and then chasing each other back up. I loved living on bases. There were lots of kids around and plenty to do. I still remember seeing Hayley Mills in The Trouble with Angels. I wanted to be a nun so I could have as much fun as she was having. I was raised in a secular family and my mother was not happy with that career choice.


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## Warrigal (Nov 25, 2021)

Mostly into cubby houses.

Also going to the municipal swimming pool and the picture show on the weekends.


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## Alizerine (Nov 25, 2021)

Anything creative. It could be drawing or painting, writing or rearranging a room. Coming up with new ideas.


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## Sassycakes (Nov 25, 2021)

Growing up in the City I had at least a dozen friends living on the same street, In the summer we would get wet under the fireplug and play dozens of games. Oh, the fun we had.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 25, 2021)

Anything that allowed me a small measure of independence and autonomy.

Even as a child I preferred being alone or with a small closely knit group of coconspirators.  

During vacations I was up and out the door until it was time to come home for the night.

A bicycle was a big part of my ability to roam and explore.


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## Pappy (Nov 25, 2021)

Building WW2 model airplanes was a big part of my young life. Exploring our big patch of woods behind our house was a part too. Going berry picking on Sunday was a fun pastime. I was heavy into magic tricks, some I built myself, and would put on shows for the family.


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## Gary O' (Nov 25, 2021)

What were you really into when you were a child?​
We lived in the hills

I roamed them.....sunup to sundown


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## Mr. Ed (Nov 25, 2021)

Psychedelic Rock


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## Irwin (Nov 25, 2021)

I was really into daydreaming about things being different than they were. Several of my teachers wrote on my report card that I spent most of the time in class staring out the window.


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## dseag2 (Nov 25, 2021)

I was really into art and music.  I played outside, but while most of my friends were playing "army" I was listening to 45's in my room or building houses out of American Building Bricks.

I later studied Architecture in college and became an amateur DJ in the 80's and 90's, so it stuck.


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## dseag2 (Nov 25, 2021)

Mr. Ed said:


> Psychedelic Rock


Me too.  Here's a trip down Memory Lane.  I still have Good Vibrations on my iPod.  (Yes, I still use an iPod.)


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## moviequeen1 (Nov 26, 2021)

watching TV,reading any movie/TV magazines


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## oldpop (Nov 26, 2021)

Hunting, fishing and riding dirt bikes.


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## Chris P Bacon (Nov 26, 2021)

Reading, I still read a good bit and girls. I never had an aversion to the fairer sex, even long before I knew what sex was. In fact, a big reason that I first became a reader was that I was attracted to the women portrayed on the covers of the detective novels that my grandfather would read. I didn't know why but there was a great attraction to those ladies on the covers of those books. But when I learned to read and I saw that the only pictures in those books were on the covers and in between the covers were lots of words that meant nothing to a young boy, I happily developed great friendships with the local library staff who gave me much more attention and guided my reading interests, than I had at home. Reading is a door to everything!


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## Smiley Holly (Nov 26, 2021)

As a young child I played with all types of toys. I was born as a boy, but I still played with dolls and barbies growing up. I also played with Army Men, Trucks, Dinosaurs and things like that as well. Once I became older I started realizing I was a female trapped in a males body. I was attracted to males, but never acted on it or ever dated because I saw myself as a female and not with another boy as a boy myself. When I came out and told my parents I wanted to transition they were obviously asking a lot of questions , but were also supportive. Once I fully transitioned in 1991 that is when I started dated men as a full women. I am now happily married to a wonderful man and have a beautiful and intelligent step daughter.


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## Gaer (Nov 26, 2021)

a little girl?  
I was always, unless it was frozen over, barefoot, down at the Yellowstone River.
That was MY RIVER!  Other people could come and look at it, but it BELONGED TO ME!  That river was MINE!

Hill climbing and exploring caves.  I found fossils and cave writings, but I didn't tell anyone.

Building whole cities in the dirt at the gravel pit.

Reading books.  Whatever I did, I was always alone.


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## palides2021 (Nov 26, 2021)

I did a number of things as a child - 

I ran everywhere. I loved to race to school (sometimes I had no choice, kids would chase us to and from school), and I even competed one year in the running division of the junior Olympics. Sledded down steep hills in winter time, looked for fossils in the woods, played sports (volleyball, soccer), and played viola in school orchestras. Won the spelling bee in fourth grade.

In my spare time, I read many books. In the school libraries, I'd always be checking out books. I'd start from one end of the library and worked my way to the other end, bringing home bags of books and reading voraciously. Later, as I grew older, I started reading nonfiction and psychology books. I think all this reading helped me in life.


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## Pinky (Nov 26, 2021)

Walking .. I walked everywhere, all over the city - and also roller skated and biked everywhere. Read a lot of books, mostly biographies.


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## Fyrefox (Nov 29, 2021)

I was into _monsters, dinosaurs, robots, _and _space stuff!  _


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## oldiebutgoody (Dec 1, 2021)

officerripley said:


> Reading and watching TV for me; it was an escape from a disfunctional home life and a lack of friends.




Same here. I also played a lot of sports.  Today I read via audio books, watch youtube rather than tv, and attend youth sports or watch online.


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## JaniceM (Dec 11, 2021)

officerripley said:


> *Reading and watching TV for me*;


Same here.


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## Knight (Dec 11, 2021)

At about age 8  I started working. Paper route, cutting grass, stocking shelves at a small mom & pop grocery store 1/2 block from where we lived, shoveling snow. Just about anything I could do to earn money. Back then no need for work permit so finding something that paid was easy. Fun came in the form of games played with the other kids.  Kick the can, tag, hide and seek, leap frog, marbles and hopscotch. A vivid memory of the school principal shocked that 6th. grade boys would find rock throwing fights was fun to do before the school day began.


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## hollydolly (Dec 11, 2021)

Pinky said:


> Walking .. I walked everywhere, all over the city - and also roller skated and biked everywhere. Read a lot of books, mostly biographies.


Ditto.....almost exactly everything you said,..and also took buses all over the city to discover what was where.. I swear that's why I have such an excellent sense of direction as an adult

I was also an avid reader, , I'd read anything that had print on it regardless of what it was. With the lack of reading material provided for us kids at home, I'd bring home books from the school library, or read my mothers old nurses encyclopaedias...

Every other Saturday we ( that's my siblings and or  me and friends) would go either Roller disco-ing .. or to the Public swimming pool... or to the Saturday morning pictures ,  there was always 2 full length cartoons, and a feature film ( something like Cinderella, and a feature film  like the Love Bug ..or  Mary Poppins, or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

..all of this was just weekends.. during the week I worked as a MIlk delivery girl before school.. and on Wednesday nights I went to Girl Guides..


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## AnnieA (Dec 11, 2021)

Reading, playing outdoors.   Thank God for local libraries.  I read all the fiction and a lot of nonfiction in ours by Jr High.  Thankfully, the librarians didn't censor what I read.  My growing up environment was very limited in terms of diversity and didn't offer much opportunity to intellectually develop beyond the Three Rs ...but the books in the library did!


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## Mrs. Robinson (Dec 11, 2021)

I was a reader-would read anything I could get my hands on. Spent many hours at our local library,in spite of it being a long walk from our house. Then,because we had a summer/weekend cabin where we spent all weekends,I was very into swimming and waterskiing. At home,I was also very into rollerskating. We didn`t ride bikes that much because I grew up in the hills overlooking San Francisco International Airport. My mom was always a little nervous about letting us ride bikes with all the steep hills. I think my brother ruined that for us after crashing a few times lol.


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Bretrick said:


> At every opportunity I would go up into the hills surrounding my home town.
> Away from people, catching snakes and frogs, trying to pick up echidnas, going out onto the dam on my homemade raft, built with boy scout skills. Loved my childhood in the thickly wooded West Coast of Tasmania.
> It is a delight that has stayed with me my whole life.


That's very interesting because I did the same things (except for the echidnas) as a young boy: snakes, frogs, salamanders, turtles, etc. and I also built a homemade raft that sunk as soon as I left the shore. And it's funny that you also mention the boy scouts because I was always getting into trouble for catching animals instead of learning to tie knots and earning merit badges.


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Pappy said:


> Building WW2 model airplanes was a big part of my young life. Exploring our big patch of woods behind our house was a part too. Going berry picking on Sunday was a fun pastime. I was heavy into magic tricks, some I built myself, and would put on shows for the family.


Did you also have a shaved deck of marked cards? Those were great for pulling a card out of the pack like ... whooooosh!


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Gary O' said:


> What were you really into when you were a child?​
> We lived in the hills
> 
> I roamed them.....sunup to sundown


I'll bet you communicated with your friends and family by smoke signals from atop the hills!


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Mr. Ed said:


> Psychedelic Rock


Oh wow, man!


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Irwin said:


> I was really into daydreaming about things being different than they were. Several of my teachers wrote on my report card that I spent most of the time in class staring out the window.


Me too.


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Smiley Holly said:


> As a young child I played with all types of toys. I was born as a boy, but I still played with dolls and barbies growing up. I also played with Army Men, Trucks, Dinosaurs and things like that as well. Once I became older I started realizing I was a female trapped in a males body. I was attracted to males, but never acted on it or ever dated because I saw myself as a female and not with another boy as a boy myself. When I came out and told my parents I wanted to transition they were obviously asking a lot of questions , but were also supportive. Once I fully transitioned in 1991 that is when I started dated men as a full women. I am now happily married to a wonderful man and have a beautiful and intelligent step daughter.


There are many traumatic situations people go through. I went to war at 19 years of age and I reckon your experience was equally (or even more) traumatic than what I went through.


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## dobielvr (Dec 11, 2021)

Growing up we played a lot.  Hide n seek, kick the can.  Rode our bikes around the neighborhood.
Made mud pies, played jacks next to our front porch.

Both of my parents worked, and my brother and sister were older.....so I had to spend  many days at my grandmother's.
Which I loved.  My cousin was there w/me at times.

In the summers we would go to Santa Cruz for a couple of weeks.  My mother had this red and white umbrella, so us kids could find her easily on the beach.  We'd hang out there for a few hours.

Life was good.  I had a happy childhood.  And, many fond memories.
Gas (ethel) was only 39c a gallon!!


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## feywon (Dec 11, 2021)

dseag2 said:


> I was really into art and music.  I played outside, but while most of my friends were playing "army" I was listening to 45's in my room or building houses out of American Building Bricks.
> 
> I later studied Architecture in college and became an amateur DJ in the 80's and 90's, so it stuck.


I had an American Building Bricks set too!. Also Lincoln  logs.


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## Murrmurr (Dec 11, 2021)

Man, I was into a whole lot of things, but for a short list I'll say baseball and microscopic animals. 

My oldest brother got an old used microscope for Christmas when he was like 8 or 9 - it had belonged to a doctor - and he and I would scoop up pond scum and cow pee from out in the pastures and look at it under the microscope. He kept paramecium and hydras, water bears and water fleas in jars, and we watched them proliferate, and he'd take a dropperful of them and put it on a slide so we could watch their antics under the microscope.

Good times!


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## Verisure (Dec 11, 2021)

Murrmurr said:


> Man, I was into a whole lot of things, but for a short list I'll say baseball and microscopic animals.
> 
> My oldest brother got an old used microscope for Christmas when he was like 8 or 9 - it had belonged to a doctor - and he and I would scoop up pond scum and cow pee from out in the pastures and look at it under the microscope. He kept paramecium and hydras, water bears and water fleas in jars, and we watched them proliferate, and he'd take a dropperful of them and put it on a slide so we could watch their antics under the microscope.
> 
> Good times!


I kept mosquito larvae and watched them grow.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Dec 11, 2021)

In my early years my dog was my best friend. I couldn't wait to get home from school, change clothes and go out in the woods with him. 
Later on I enjoyed painting, drawing, and doing crafts. 
I remember begging my mom to let me have a box of macaroni so I paint and string them for necklaces and bracelets. She wasn't to thrilled about wasting a box of macaroni on my jewelry making but she finally gave in.
I had friends but was just as happy being alone and I was never bored.


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## Murrmurr (Dec 11, 2021)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> In my early years my dog was my best friend. I couldn't wait to get home from school, change clothes and go out in the woods with him.
> Later on I enjoyed painting, drawing, and doing crafts.
> I remember begging my mom to let me have a box of macaroni so I paint and string them for necklaces and bracelets. She wasn't to thrilled about wasting a box of macaroni on my jewelry making but she finally gave in.
> I had friends but was just as happy being alone and I was never bored.


Art was a big part of my life, too. Especially from about age 15 on up. Mostly I drew. First pencils, then pen and ink. I didn't start painting until a few years later, and (in my opinion) I wasn't really good at it until my early 30s. The more I painted, the better I got, of course, but the older I got, the less I painted. Just too much crap going on in my life at the time. C'est la guerre, right?


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## win231 (Dec 12, 2021)

Sugar.


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## feywon (Dec 12, 2021)

Before age 10, swimming and acrobatics; around adolescence developed interest in buildings, designing houses. From first early exposure (preschool) reading and being in nature have stayed with me as passions and comforts.


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