My favorite things to do as a child were very skewed and very easy to fulfill. All the way through elementary school i was thrilled when i was upright, surrounded by friendly faces and not being given a black eye. I think most of my favorite things occurred away from both school and home in the form of solitary endeavors. I spent a lot of time at the library reading and doing school work. I remember being totally addicted to q-bert on the library pc and was absolutely thrilled when i figured out how to cheat and had the high score for years until the computer finally bit the dust. I also read a huge amount of books (the choose your own adventure series was my favorite) and got in trouble quite often because i kept rearranging the organization of the shelves to something i felt was more appropriate. The biggest trouble i got into was when i rearrange the entire religion section because i discovered that the Dewey Decimal system puts Christianity in the religion section and everything else ( ie: Buddhism, Hinduism, Unitarianism, Paganism, etc) in the mythology section.
I also spent a huge amount of time going to music lessons where i played bass guitar and keys. i think this was my all time favorite thing and its a hobby that has survived to present day. I am absolutely thrilled to, as of last month, have a place i can practice again after years in a tiny apartment near DU.
A third favorite thing that i remember doing was going to Wisconsin in the summer to visit my mother's side of the family. They have a huge family reunion every year (which reminds me that its happening this year in about a week) that includes food, games, a 3 hour super hard scavenger hunt, about 150 people (that i am convinced only half of are actually related to me) and a fireworks show (that i help run) that rivals most big cities 4th of july displays. last year we had over a grands worth of fireworks and even had a dunk tank which we took turns in.
The fourth thing i remember was a ton of fun was jumping off of the damn into the lake near my house. the was a huge concrete lip that would create an 8 foot drop into the water. one year we filled the inside of the frame of a bmx bike with spray foam and took turns riding it off the ramp into the water.
When i was really small i remember that another really fun thing that would happen is when my parents went out for the evening they would have the neighbor girl come over to watch me (not that i needed watching, i was ridiculously self sufficient). It worked out because she didn't actually have to do anything that is usually associated with watching a young person and we would hang out, eat cheerios with sugar poured on them and watch hilariously bad B horror movies. She has since moved to Florida but i actually still talk to her every once in a while.
who needs popcorn?
M. Charlie,
ReplyDeleteThat is really funny that you would eat cheerios in sugar instead of milk. I think all that sugar would make me feel sick and not be able to sit still to watch a movie, since it would give me energy. I noticed that you said that you spend a lot of time at the library as a child. What motivated you and encouraged you to spent time there? Do you think that spending the time you did at the library has given you more motivation to read as an adult now versus if you didn't go to the library as a child? Let me know what you think, I look forward to hearing from you.