Do you remember obsessive interests as a child?

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Still have, still have... I'd 'invade' churches just to write down a list of all the stops on the organ.
These days that particular obsession has settled down to reading as much as I can find about specific organs, and loving organ music above all other forms. For many years I collected CDs primarily for the organ featured with the music as a (close) secondary consideration.
There's a particular joy and deep satisfaction still to be had by checking out the mechanics and internal workings of an organ (especially trackers) given the opportunity to get inside one, and going to an organ recital is practically a religious experience.
But at least I can now play, so I suppose some good came from it.

As a child, I was obsessed with witches for awhile, I had forgotten about that one. (Though that´s probably not at all unusual for a child). Later on, when I was an older kid, that special interest was re-activated when we learned about the Salem Witchcraft trials in school, so I read quite a lot about that. At around that time, I also got an Ouiji board- (though I can´t remember how to spell it, lol)- and that was all I ever wanted to do with other people, was go on the Ouiji board. As I recall, I drove many people (family members, etc.) nuts with that....

Computers
The Olympics
The Dukes of Hazard
Saturday morning cartoons
Spiderman
Barbie
Toy cars
Routemasters
London
Money
Animals
Music of any kind
Christmas
Toilet humour
Hockey Night in Canada
Wayne Gretzky
Mr. Belvedere
WWF Wrestling
Name That Tune
Jeopardy
Bagpipes
The United States
England
Soviet Russia
Scotland
The Beatles
Lego

Animals.
Birds.
Rocks.
Science.
Videogames.
Computers.
Books.
Insects.
Ancient Egypt.
Star Wars.
Castles.
The Lord of the Rings (book).

I did the EXACT same things, and always laughed at myself thinking there couldn't possibly be anyone anywhere in the world who had that obsession and did those things. It is seriously stunning to browse this forum and find out for the first time in my life that I'm not quite as unusual as I thought!! !

Yep. I thought the same thing too. It's a shock, a relief, and happiness all at the same time to discover it's not some weird isolated quirk.
And it's really nice to discover that someone else loves the beauty and ingenuity of these things - and as you did what I did, I know that to be true.
Bourdon 8', Roerfluit 8' on Hoofdwerk, with Holpijp 8', Nasard 3' on Rugpositief plus a light tremulant, and Subbass 16', Holpijp 8' on Pedal (Dutch Schnitger-style voicing).
Bliss expressed in sound.

omg, how could i forget about Lord of the Rings?!?!

i was very much into LotR in high school. i used to write parodies and everything, complete with musical numbers, and then make my friends read them

Dinosaurs, astronomy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts, Star Trek, Star Wars, computers, science, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (there were a lot of cartoons around this time that involved animals behaving like human superheroes - Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, Chip'n'Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Talespin. I'd create my own animal characters and plotlines.) Transformers (the original cartoon and cartoon movie), Voltron, robots in general. Various videogames (I would develop my own levels and boss concepts.) The Beatles, British culture in general. And that's just the ones before college.

Wow, I forgot that I was also into the paranormal as a kid! Maybe that was an intro to my future special interests I checked out every book I could find on ghosts, demons, spirits, monsters etc. from my elementary school library. Then I moved on to the adult section of my local library.

I still find it fascinating. It certainly was the main reason I got into The X-Files.

My first obsession was cats (hence my ID Meow101). Others: medical knowledge and medical shows (Medical Center, The Interns...yeah I'm dating myself), constellations, Donny Osmond, writing (I had stacks of little "books" I wrote..dunno what my mother ever did with them), later in HS Spanish language and medical knowledge as well as meteorology.

~Kate

bicycles...altering them, building them from parts..doing bmx tricks
riding as far as I could go in a day and make it home by dark..lol went to neighboring cities
motors, trying to make gocarts
pretending I could survive in a jungle...like a tarzan child...ran around in the woods barefoot, climbing trees, swinging from branches, swimming in our nasty river

3-6 years:

numbers (counting by different numbers up to the thousands. incessantly) also prime numbers (rote memorized)
ages (grew put of numbers...had to ask everyone I met over and over how old they were )
vocabulary
obsessive collecting and arranging of stuffed monkeys (I threw such a big tantrum in a restaurant because I couldn't have a stuffed monkey that was part of a display. the restaurant had a rainforest theme or something... that the next time we came to the restaurant the manager gave me the monkey as soon as they saw me!! - I had to arrange the monkeys in a circle (each in their own place) and stand in the middle of the circle

6-12 years:

boring socially appropriate obsessions:
only ones I remember are
- gymnastics
- "acting" I was a terrible actress but loved it/loved the idea of it
- being "average" I actually wanted to have the most common name (looked up stats on what it was ....Jennifer was the most common girls name that years I wanted to be called Jennifer- be not too rich and not too poor etc...that way I would be normal. I guess this was a little strange ...because I looked up stats on most common things
-short lived obsession with octopi and related sea creatures (cephalopods) when was 8
-the idea of alternate universes
-throughout this period I had repetitive fantasies/daydreams related to whatever my interest was at the time

From 16 on I developed more aspiish interests starting with a long lasting one in primateology and evolution

during 12-15/16 I didn’t have much interest in anything...I was mildly depressed ....although I was pretty obsessed in terms of focus and amount of time engaged in the activity with The Simpson’s (this was actually a huge obsession...I've pretty much memorized every episode for the first 7 seasons) and later certain sit-coms like Seinfeld.....

Hah! Same here. I loved the rhythm and the way the pattern unfolded.

animals, books, Australia, horses, daydreaming and probably tons more

Oh, and, of course, a very intense obsession with Blake's 7, a sci-fi series that was first aired between 1978 and 1981. After Blake's 7 I had some minor obsessions with other sci-fi movies like Star Wars but it was nothing compared with what Blake's 7 was to me. And still is, as a matter of fact.