running around with super soakers

I used to love digging holes in the beach and unearthing hidden treasures like cigarette butts.

I got a really cool Lego set one time. Though it did have one defective piece in it.

Pretty sure this was back around the time of the diamond and pearl anime, but watching that because marathon on TV while having Sonic 3D Blast paused on the Sonic Mega Collections disk we had for gamecube because there was only one TV in the main room of the basement for watching TV and playing games. I definitely played that game collection the most out of me and my 2 brothers.

I also remember getting stuck on a “puzzle” for Starfox Adventures because you needed to shoot a flame to make it hit a holder but it had to be the right colour. I got stuck because I didn’t have the right cord for the gamecube, so I’m pretty sure I was using something like a PS2 avi cable, which made the whole game grayscale. Not saying I was happy to get stuck, but I do remember it being a real fun game. Definitely gonna replay it when I get my Steam Deck back from being fixed since I never beat it as a child or teen into young adult.

Catching crabs on the bank of the bay. Playing catch with my best friend. Reading an exciting new book.

Edit: Come to think of it, it hasn’t changed much. I’m catching a different type of crab now and my best friend has become a dog. Not too bad.

Biking to the local pool to spend an entire day. Low-dive and high-dive until my eyes couldn’t take any more of the chlorine. Take a short break where I’d use my allowance to buy a choco-taco or big ol’ ice cream cookie sandwhich. The days when I never thought twice about my protruding little boy belly being visible. I was friendly with one of the life-guards, who was real hairy so we called him wolf-man. I’d get up on the diving board and ask him what trick I should do next, and he’d call it out. Haven’t been able to find a good high-dive at a pool in a long time.

Days when I’d venture out into the neighborhood, going door to door trying to collect enough kids for a proper game of kickball. One day one of the kids dad’s came out and played with us, and it was such a blast.

Biking to my school during summer break to play on the playground, finding a huge dumptruck load of mulch had been deposited on the blacktop, and I was able to kind of bike up one side and hop off. Spent hours on that mulch pile

Rollerblading in the neghborhood, using my older brothers skateboard ramp to do tricks. One time I went door-to-door, telling my neighbors that I was going to do a rollerblading trick show, and if they wanted to come outside and watch it would cost them a dollar. Think I made like 5 dollars, had some nice adults come stand at the end of their driveway, watching me do jumps off the ramp for like 7 minutes. I finished on a 360 spin with a grab to a patient golf-clap that seemed at the time just short of thunderous applause.

I am sitting on a blanket on the lawn under the weeping willow tree. Mother comes out, a surprise. She’s holding a plate and hands me two things of matza pizza and says she made me some. I thank her and she goes back inside. I am munching the matza pizza.

I had (have), 3 friends, Bill, Billy, and Joey. The 4 of us used to ride our bikes from just after breakfast until dinner. At least 10 hours a day. No helmets. No phones. Just cruisin’ around. Countless hours of fun. From poking road kill with a stick or buying 45s at the mall record store.

This was the 80s, health and safety be damned. People would build wooden cars with ball bearings from washing machine for wheels. It was a basic wood plank from fruit boxes hacked together with some nails. We’d hit the steepest road (yes, with cars occasionally), climb to the top and zoom down the steep descent. Ended in a 90 degree turn which meant that using shoes for braking didn’t always work and some folks would hit the pavement and be launched. Kids as young as 6 to teenagers would all join in. No adult in sight. Ahhh… good times!

Am in my later 20s.
I still enjoy digging holes at the beach.
I would like to build an igloo or a snowman but the amount of snow that enables that is…lacking… :(

Walking downtown to the movie theatre (back when they were cheap and they didn’t arrest parents for letting kids do that) to see first-run science-fiction features on a Saturday holding a bag of popcorn… and getting my money’s worth … and still enjoying them decades later after nuking my own popcorn …

My mum had a big mare, sweet thing. Would let me cuddle with her head that was about as big as my whole body. Many happy memories there :)

I just want to say how much I love this question! Yes, I should think more often if the things that I really enjoyed as a kid :)

When I was in early elementary school, my dad would take me & my sister to the local mall. He would get us all books at the Waldenbooks - he would get a scifi pulp novel, I would get a Garfield book, and my sister would get a Calvin & Hobbes book. Then he’d take us to a restaurant there in the mall, and we’d have a nice leisurely lunch while reading our new books.

Playing tabletop RPGs with my friends. Or just hanging out with them and playing video games.