Things we loved to do as children, but...

Post Reply New Topic

I had a dream last night about something I used to do in my childhood. I would walk around the yard in a certain specific pattern over and over again until I either got tired, or wanted to quit. I would do this evening after evening whenever the weather was nice. Being that I was a child, the neighbors probably didn't think too much about this, but...as an adult, what if I were to begin doing this again? What would they think? Just because I am now an adult doesn't mean I wouldn't still like to walk these patterns. But I don't.

Do any of you relate to this? What are some things you did as a child that you no longer do...but sometimes want to do?

I'll still fidget with my toys, or watch cartoons (the classic ones i grew up with). With the toys, which i still do "play with" to a degree, i like seeing how they bend, move, and what kind of pose best suits them (at least in my eye).

No, my behaviour is pretty much unchanged from when I was a child. I still pace around when I'm at home, when I'm waiting for a bus/train etc. I'm very restless. I always have been and I probably always will be.

I'm 28 years old and I still watch Thomas the Tank Engine. My flat is full of Ghostbusters, Tottenham and vintage computer gear. I have a pile of over a thousand VHS tapes and nine Commodore VIC 20s that I keep in my kitchen cupboards.

When I think about it, there is very little in the adult world that appeals to me. If you have a driving licence, you are responsible for the lives of other people and I don't want a person's death on my conscience. If you have a family, you have to give everything up for them -- I'm always buying computer gear over the internet from blokes who have to sell all their stuff because the wife thinks it's taking up too much space. Who needs all that s**t?

Last edited by EnglishInvader on 11 Nov 2009, 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Spin

I used to spin myself dizzy when I was a kid and it was so much fun.

Now just a couple rotations with my spinning daughter and I feel like I'm going to throw up. When she starts spinning I have to look away or I feel dizzy. She wants me to spin with her but I just can't. And I hate those scenes in movies where the camera spins around.

Yet I used to do this routinely for entertainment. Something must have changed in my vestibular system as I aged.

It would be great if I could still enjoy spinning without the nausea because my daughter sure loves spinning and she wants me to do it with her. But I just can't.

If I didn't go to college where I did, my answer to this would be playing Pokémon and discussing it with people. Recently, one of my roommates saw that I was playing Pokémon on an emulator on my laptop. Instead of making fun of me, he got excited and asked me to send him the ROM (to put this in perspective, he is in the fraternity I was briefly in, and parties regularly).

I used to pat and stroke my pant leg as a kid. I just did it yesterday. So I guess, while I slacked off, I never stopped.

The feeling it evokes in me is sublime.

Thank you for your responses so far---they have been interesting.

Although I don't walk those patterns anymore, I do find I have certain roads I like to drive each day. Perhaps driving has been a substitute for that. And now with a family, I can share with my kids---and perhaps take part in their play. Our house is interesting because we each have our own little domain. The basement and one back room is filled with my interests, my sons have their interests in their rooms and part of the family room, and my wife has her things in a certain part of the family room and beside our bed. We function very well because while we are very close, we still do our own things/our interests. In fact, since marriage and having kids, I have become even more engrossed in certain interests because my kids might find them fun some day. I guess I will never grow up.

But...I still long to walk those patterns.

Hi EnglishInvader, I just read your profile. Your interests are spores, molds, and fungus. I can remember when I was in college my girlfriend (my wife now) was majoring in chemistry. While she was taking some biology classes, she had to collect things like spores, molds, and fungus. She really enjoyed that. Though she is an NT, this was something she really enjoyed. Perhaps I should try to get her interested in it once again---she needs an intense interest. My problem is I am not chemistry/biology smart. But I do find the different varieties of mushrooms intriguing. Here in this region of the U.S., our prized mushroom is the Morel which grows in the Spring. Those are a real treat to eat for many of us.

I don't gallop anymore. sometimes I would like to.

if I have access to a swing, I will get on and make it go really high.

I used to also like laying down on the merry go round if I could convince someone to push it for me. I'd probably still like it but I won't try because of fear of other people's children.

I still draw and paint but not as much as I'd like. as a kid I worked in miniature, and sometimes microscopically (meaning you had to view the piece through a microscope to see/read) but most of my work is larger these days (my painting professor introduced me to the joy of large canvas).

[quote="glider18"]Hi EnglishInvader, I just read your profile. Your interests are spores, molds, and fungus. quote]

"Spores, moulds and fungus" is a reference to Ghostbusters rather than a specific interest of mine. The "Class five, full-roaming vapour" I put for occupation is also a GB reference .

Hi EnglishInvader---I missed that clue...but at least with Ghostbusters, the whole family here likes that .

Those are things that I used to like as a child but now they make me nauseous due to changes (I assume) in my inner ear. I used to swing so high that the swing stopped it's arc and started to fall straight down. But when my daughter was a toddler and wanted me to swing with her, going more than a couple inches back and forth very slowly made me nauseous. (But they had those buicket seats so I could push her by herself).

She also likes the merry go round but I can just give it one push and then I have to turn around so I can't see it spinning because it makes me dizzy even to watch. So if I saw you on the merry go round I would definately not push it for you but perhaps you and my daughter could work something out that didn't involve me doing anything other than turning around and looking in the other direction until the spinning was over.

Something I did topic

Before I started studying my current special interest just before my 13th birthday, I had an overwhelming interest in prison camps from WWII, especially the Colditz Castle. Now I did not have access to a castle to imagine being in, but i imagined my big backyard, after dusk had fallen as the parade yard in one of the more traditional looking camps, like the one at Stalag Luft III (immortalized in the book by Paul Brickhill, and set to both the silver screen and TV movies known as The Great Escape. The latter TV movie was done as the book was intended). I would dress up in what looked like a uniform and stand outside, waiting to be counted as a prisoner. I was living this special interest from age 10 to 13, and then found the interest I have now. I would even walk around the perimeter of the yard and imagine the guard towers, warning wire and such. I was all alone, and did not share this with anyone. I was so intensely focused in that all my thoughts were about this.

I knew no one who had been a POW. But I wanted to experience what I thought was how POWs existed in those camps, in my naivete, in my youth. It was not a romantic gesture. I was very respectful of what Allied prisoners endured. It came to an end when I tried wanted to feel what it was like to dig into the earth and build a tunnel. My family stepped in and stated that this was enough. So I did it on paper--I wrote about what I would feel, working on the tunnel instead. And I continued to read, and then found my current special interest.

I like to skip around a lot... like in the Wizard of Oz I used to ALL THE TIME, but I have knee problems now... probably from skipping so much, lol, so cannot do it as easily in a knee brace, or it's just painful to try. Still fun when I am able.

I use to take everything apart, tv's radios computers vcr's, I loved the spinney things in vcrs