Fondly remembering summer hobbies, activities, and shenanigans:
Digging a cave in the back yard in the summer of '64(having seen The Great Escape I think influenced that one
.) Later my folks put in a pool. We neighbor kids moved our "dirt forts" to the vacant lots on the block. Dirt clod wars!
Learning to make fireworks starting a age 12 & the evanescent pleasure of watching them on the 4th of July with my family & neighbors. Going to the public library to study the Chemical Formulary reference for fireworks formulas & each year they got better - fountains, flares, skyrockets, roman candles. The police knew but let it go because they watched too. I still have all ten digits by the way.
(This was made a felony in 1986 so, no, I don't do that anymore.)
Building a crystal radio from galena, old TV deflection winding copper wire for the inductor & wax paper/tinfoil condenser. Finally getting a audible signal over at my uncle's house with the help of an amplifier. Later building a Heathkit SW receiver(all miniature tube set). He was a great influence for my electronics hobby. He used to work for JPL in the telemetry lab for Pioneer & other missions.
Going on vacation trips to Lake Arrowhead, June Lake, Wallowa Lake, White Mountain Apache Reservation. We'd load up the Rambler station wagon to the 'gills', put a mattress pad in the back for kiddie "quiet time". Tying leaders & hooks, baiting hooks and mostly just untangling lines for my brother & sisters. Never seemed to fail: they always caught more than me. Don't know why.
My childhood home was sold just a year ago this month to a young family. Both my parents passed away within 3 months of each other early in 2011. Cleaning out the home of 53 years evoked a lot of fond childhood memories whether it was touching the hutch in the front hallway, or the wooden workbench Dad built. We had moved into that house in 1958.