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

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.

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

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 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.

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.

Dicking around in the woods with my friends. Building forts, climbing trees, catching crawfish in the creek, playing war, ninjas, or wolf, riding our bikes off sketchy jumps. The woods were absolute freedom. It’s wild, we have a similar area of woods where I live now and my 11 year old daughter has zero interest.

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!

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.

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… :(

Playing CS 1.5 to source everyday/every night with the exact same person for years…

After school? Running home and gaming till the morning

During vacation? Non stop gaming

During new year? Just a glass at 00:00 with family and gaming again till the morning…

This was the best time of my life and probably the best childhood memory, until I grew up, met my first girlfriend, went to highschool/university and now having a job…

I miss this good old days where you had nothing in between your fun and happiness.

Now it’s just a mess of disappointment…

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 :)

• School plays! I got into a costume and acted on stage. There were some parts where I had to sing and I looked forward to those plays so much I would be giddy! The one I remember the most was when I had to dress up as a gold star.

• Building igloos out of snow. Rather than building snowmen we would build chairs, beds, etc. made out of snow!

• Drawing. I remember my mom and dad telling me about how I could just fill up an entire page with different things! My grandma was a painter for most of her life, and whenever we went to her house, she’d go upstairs to retrieve her art supplies and teach me how to paint.

• Swimming. I just love water in general and the tradition was that we’d go to a fast food place immediately after. If it was after a session at a public pool, I’d still smell like chlorine even after showering. The combination of the smell of the inside of a McDonald’s and chlorine is such a formative memory to me for that reason haha.

• Laser tag. I was really good at it!

• School trips! I went to this really cool science museum with my class once, I would love to say the name of it, but then that would reveal where I live. It was one of those museums where you could do practical things and it was really fun. I also loved it whenever we went go-karting even though I’d always end up with bruises on my inner thighs.

Painting my grandma’s face with makeup. I thought she didn’t realize I was painting her like a clown with a red nose and all, and I thought it was hilarious. Was always mildly disappointed whenever she took the makeup off before leaving, but I never lost the hope one day she wouldn’t notice and would walk out with it.

Ah fun times.