Childhood interests/hobbies

[Brian Griffin]

I was punished.

The Playboy subscription was cancelled.

Sounds more like pops was punished

BG

[No Pride]

Drawing
Monster movies (and model kits)
Dinosaurs
Comic Books
Human anatomy (not the way I'm interested in it now, of course)
Astronomy
Microscopes
Telescopes

I'd decided I was going to be some sort of doctor or scientist until The Beatles came around and ruined my life. I ended up becoming a professional musician. Thanks a lot... Beatles.

[East New York]

Were you a flag in the corner chick? Surrounded by bombs? Or were you a risk taker like me with the flag among the troops? Loved that game. I even had the electronic version called 'Generals'

Both, depending on my mood and the mood/character of my opponent.

I never heard of 'Generals'. How did I miss that one? I musta been under a rock or something! I did find a Stratego app a few weeks ago and was psyched until I saw that it got lousy reviews, so I didn't get it. :-(

Skitching was awesome. Sure you could get hurt, but that was part of the awesome! You haven't lived until you catch a bus

OK, I admit it. My favorite was the B56 (now the Q56)!

[East New York]

For a very short period of time when we were kids, my father had a subscription to Playboy.My brother(4 years older than me) was around 13 at the time and was very interested in perusing the magazine.I was also, if only to annoy my brother.

One morning, i heared the mail being put through the mail slot.Sure enough, there was the new issue of Playboy,my brother also heared the sound, and told me that if Playboy arrived, he wanted to read it first.The hell with that, said i, and i grabbed the magazine, with my brother in hot pursuit, threatening grievous injury to me if i didn't give him the magazine.

He was chasing me around the house, and i made a quick turn into the bathroom and slammed the door...right on my brothers thumb,gashing it severely.Blood flowed, he was screaming, my mother ran in,semi-hysterical..a real mess.
No major damage done,we went to the emergency room, Fred's thumb was patched up.I was punished.

The Playboy subscription was cancelled.

Good times.

Great story.

[East New York]

You ever accidentally step on a couple of those things in your bare feet? Damn that smarts!

There was nothing worse than this, except stepping on a Spirograph pin.

[Mr. Grizzly Bear]

Model kits
Airplanes
Trains
Reading encyclopedias
Batman
Animals (especially big cats and bears)
Dinosaurs
Space travel
Museums
Bicycling
Music
Board games
Model rockets (Estes man!!)
Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars
Playing Batman with the neighborhood kids (I always loved either being The Penguin or the announcer like on the tv show)
Photography
Star Trek (when the original series was "current")
GI Joe
Johnny West
monster movies
Cartoons
Walkie Talkies
Kenner Girder and Panel Bulding Set
Erector Sets
Ideal Motorific
Lots of Mad Magazine!
Aurora Model Motoring (HO mini slot cars)
Steam engines
Spirograph
Tether ball

[Vic2012]

I used to buy those paint-by-the-numbers sets. I used to draw a lot, mostly Super Heros, cartoons, naked women, etc.

[Scott Bails]

slingshots

playing with matches, lighters, burning stuff with a magnifying glass

walkie-talkies - the kid across the street got a brilliant idea to get some discarded blasting wire from a nearby construction site, and attach it to a metal pole that he tied up in a tree in his backyard, and then ran it to his bedroom window to attach to his walkie-talkie. The next thunderstorm left a nice burn mark on the side of his house and took down half of the tree.

Dave - you're not a serial killer by any chance, are you?

[meimjustalawnmower]

Dave - you're not a serial killer by any chance, are you?

I'd just like to know if he still has all of his fingers?

[Dave (in MA)]

my father had a subscription to Playboy...
there was the new issue of Playboy...
i grabbed the magazine...
i made a quick turn into the bathroom and slammed the door...
Good times.

[Dave (in MA)]

Dave - you're not a serial killer by any chance, are you?

I'd just like to know if he still has all of his fingers?

Come on, don't try to tell me you didn't do the same things?

[walt]

Dave - you're not a serial killer by any chance, are you?

[walt]

Come on, don't try to tell me you didn't do the same things?

[Digital_Man]

The Playboy subscription was cancelled.

Good times.

Something tells me your mom decided the PB subscription should end.

[walt]

Something tells me your mom decided the PB subscription should end.

Correctamundo.

[progeezer]

Until I was 12 it was mostly sports. I started singing along to my Elvis, Buddy Holly & doo-wop 45s that I started buying at 9 or 10. When I was 12, a friend heard me and said "My older brother (who was all of 15) is in a doo-wop group and looking for a new lead singer so they can get rid of their current one". Since then, for the last 56 years, it's almost all music (listening, making, talking about, etc.) with sports taking up any slack.

[JKL2000]

Okay, I had a few GI Joes too. I mean original Joes from the mid 60s. I might've blown 'em up too. If I knew then, what I know now .

Oh, I remember loosening he head on my GI Joe, then putting fire crackers in it with the fuse sticking out. So much fun to watch his head fly into the air! I also used to take my fishing rod and put the hook inside his head and put his head back on, then hang him from the fishing line off my grandparents back porch (it was pretty far down) and swing him around and stuff. But he could take it!

[JKL2000]

No! What happened? Is the Hayden Planetarium gone now?!

They tore the whole thing down and built a new, much less interesting but more profitable planetarium. Instead of having live, long sky shows that changed a few times a year, they have a short, automated show narrated by people like Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford. There some ok exhibits, but I loved stuff they used to have like the scales that showed you your weight on the different planets.

[Scott Bails]

Until I was 12 it was mostly sports. I started singing along to my Elvis, Buddy Holly & doo-wop 45s that I started buying at 9 or 10. When I was 12, a friend heard me and said "My older brother (who was all of 15) is in a doo-wop group and looking for a new lead singer so they can get rid of their current one". Since then, for the last 56 years, it's almost all music (listening, making, talking about, etc.) with sports taking up any slack.

Twelve, huh?

Did you guys do a lot of Frankie Lymon stuff?



LOVE Frankie Lymon.

[progeezer]

We did do a lot of FL & The Teenagers stuff, along with Frankie's younger brother Louis & his group, The Teenchords. Heartbeats, Harptones, Del-Vikings, and on and on.....

Even in 1957, white people were stealing black music!

[Scott Bails]

Yeah, Louis was pretty good, too.

[meimjustalawnmower]

Saw a PBS thing about Frankie Lymon recently. Really quite a sad story.

[Hunnibee]

I forgot to mention my baseball obsession! It started in the summer of 69, and yes, I was a Mets fan for a brief time. For much of my teens, though, I was a Red Sox fan. It wasn't until the 80s when I went "geographic" and finally caught Giants fever while living in the Bay Area. I've been a San Fran fan ever since!

Oh, and why am I the only one who loved Legos? They weren't just for the little kiddos. I was building castles on my bedroom floor when I was 13!

[meimjustalawnmower]

Oh, and why am I the only one who loved Legos? They weren't just for the little kiddos. I was building castles on my bedroom floor when I was 13!

Melissa-
I think it's because Lego's didn't get really popular in the US until they introduced minifigures and themed sets, which was when most of us were already adults.

[Trane]

Originally Posted by Hunnibee
Oh, and why am I the only one who loved Legos? They weren't just for the little kiddos. I was building castles on my bedroom floor when I was 13!

Melissa-
I think it's because Lego's didn't get really popular in the US until they introduced minifigures and themed sets, which was when most of us were already adults.

Not so sure... although we'd moved from Europe in 73 in Canada, we weren't the only ones playing around with these things...

And to be honest I always found these minifigures and themed sets horrendous.... not just because I was an young adult and thought it was ugly, but it killed a lot of creativity that was needed to play with Lego... After all, berfore these themed sets, you had to build from scratch with only your imagination... all a sudden, you had a user's manual...

Originally Posted by Dave (in MA)
slingshots

playing with matches, lighters, burning stuff with a magnifying glass

walkie-talkies - the kid across the street got a brilliant idea to get some discarded blasting wire from a nearby construction site, and attach it to a metal pole that he tied up in a tree in his backyard, and then ran it to his bedroom window to attach to his walkie-talkie. The next thunderstorm left a nice burn mark on the side of his house and took down half of the tree.

Dave - you're not a serial killer by any chance, are you?

Sounds more like Denis The Menace to me...