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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

• 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.

Things I loved but don’t do anymore: Climbing trees, building snow forts, making elaborate toy castles. Falling asleep on the floor in a sunbeam next to the cat.

Things I still do: eat chocolate chips out of the bag, walk barefoot in the grass, take mediocre pictures of random things that feel really profound at the time but are immediately forgotten

When I was a kid my parents would rent a beach house at the end of summer on the Oregon coast. Their friends from college would usually stay there with us, in the evening we would have a campfire on the beach. The smell of a campfire almost always brings back memories of those days even now that I’m in my 40’s.

Christmas morning at grandparents when everyone was done opening presents sitting alone in a corner building a Lego set with no worries about responsibilities or time constraints.

Being able to play sports (baseball/football) with neighborhood kids. No organizations like today. No parents interfering. No one drove you to the field, you walked there. Everyone got along and there were no overweight kids because everyday you got plenty of outside exercise.

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.

Skipping stones over the local water reservoir.

I sucked at it, but it was still time away from my sisters.

The house I grew up in had two trees in the front yard. We would tie string (probably a thin nylon rope) between the trees and hang sheets/blankets on the string, creating a “fort”. All the neighborhood kids would hang out there in the summer and we had so much fun pretending it was a fort, spaceship, bus, etc.

Getting a new LEGO set and going home. I would spend the entire trip home analyzing every little bit of that box even if it was dark until we got home. I couldn’t wait to finish unloading the groceries and then going to my room where I would kneel by the bed and unload all the plastic packages all over the blanket. I’ll never forget the way those bags with holes used to feel and sound as I’d crunch each of them and open them up.

Then I’d get the book and spend the next 30 minutes to hours building it and then admiring it before playing with it with the rest of my collection.

I get tempted every now and then to buy another when I’m at the store. I bought the Skyline car recently and that was fine to put together.

I loved watching the newest episode of Golden Girls with my grandma when I was a kid. It was on Saturday nights I think.