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Kevin you are the best dang story teller I know. Seriously. You should write more. I love reading your stories. I feel like I was there. I only wish I had been your buddy in grade school. I would have been over to your "zoo" every day for I was a critter keepin guy too. Mine included rabbits and pigeons since we had room out there in the country. What's the name of that book about Kentucky? Being from there I wouldn't mind reading it.
Can reading be a hobby? Travel? What about writing? Just think of all the writing some of us have done on social sites. Some of our deepest thoughts, conclusions and life experiences have been meticulously written out, to possibly someday disappear in cyberspace behind millions of other pages. Depressing isn't it?
Someone suggested that you write out your more profound thoughts in an on going Word document on your computer to save, sort of like a diary. It can be passed along to other generations long after you are gone. That could be a hobby I suppose. I did it for a while on another site I used to visit daily. Now when I look back on some of those things I wrote it is evident I have changed since then. So has the world.
Our other son Andrew loved art and as a 3 year old was drawing pictures that rivaled most high school artists. He is currently in his 8th year of college and will be graduating a year from now with 3 separate degrees, a Bachelors of Fine Arts, a Bachelors of Education and a Bachelors of Mathematics.
Our whole family are Rock climbers as we own a Rock Climbing gym called Higher Ground Rock Climbing Centre ltd. Even though Lena, Paul and Myself climb at the gym everyday or we are out guiding or Paul and I do High Rope Access work, Rigging, High Angle Rescue, Movie Stunt Rigging and generally anything up as high as possible, we still spend our vacations having something to do with climbing, whether climbing Big walls or sim[ly bouldering. I's something we all have a passion for.
I usually work around 80 hours a week and I am usually flapping my gums teaching, consulting, speaking etc. Because of what i need to do to get words out (My vocal chords still don't function properly but they at least do function!). I really like quiet time so I collect Ancient Roman coins. The coins go from 400 BC up to 320 AD. I especially look for Fourees (counterfeits) that were produced during that time. It's really a great way for me to relax and at the same time i have been studying the Roman Empire.
This is Herod Phillip Augustus who was in power from 7-10 BC, He is the one who ordered the murder of all the young boys under the age of 2 in bethlehem.
And, if there is a hobby that I would say that I have now, I would have to say that the things I like to do most is to play music on my harmonicas (right now I'm in a band called "Los Iguanas!"), and also, I love to write. Done a number of short stories...
And when we'd vacation in Florida during Spring Break (Daytona), I was in Hog Heaven chasing Armadillos at night with a flashlight just to get a look at 'em, and catching chameleons (Anoles) in the wild was way the hell better than buyin 'em at Kresge's! And snakes? Man! Way more snakes in Florida! Once, in the great Okeefenokee swamp in Waycross Georgia, while walking a boardwalk, I grabbed a "small" three foot alligator that was in the water next to the board walk, and man did that bastard thrash! Much to the terror of all of the Parents in my Mom and Dad's "trailer camping" buddies group with whom I had been dragged along with over the years to various places. After I held up the gator for all to see, I threw the bugger back, much to my own relief!
And so, in my Greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area neighborhood just north of the DC Line, I was known as "Nature Boy" because of all of my "critturs". I had great joy when coming home from Rock Creek one day with a vicious ripping gash in my left forearm from a Red Bellied Water Snake who bit me good and proper because I grabbed him wrong. Hell I was bleedin' like a stuck pig! But it didn't hurt too much, and man did the neighborhood Moms swoon when I responded to their queries with; "Oh, it's a snake bite maa'm, no big deal, he wasn't poisonous" as I refused their offers of help and walked on to my own home. Yeah, I always figured that I was born a hunnerd years too late and way too far to the East. But, I had to make do with what I had and enjoy Nature right where I lived.
But then, come high school, I started smokin' pot. Gettin' high and tryin to be "cool". And, I did in fact have a bit of success at that, however only moderately. I became known amongst my friends as "Get High Nye", and I even became somewhat "funny" and less afraid to talk to wimmen! Now that was a cool thing. And more an more, I was out later and later, and gettin stoneder and stoneder, and one night, I came home to crash in my bedroom in the basement where the folks kept me, and guess what? All of my turtles were dead! And my African Frogs too! I hadn't changed their water in a long time, and I guess I polluted 'em, or somethin'.
And that was the end of my dream to be a "zoologist" or something like that. But, I still had my Hodaka Ace 100 Super Rat dirt bike, and I did love to tinker with that and eventually became a Marine Engineer, tinkering with the engines of big ships and such.
But Joe, all I have done is list my old "hobbies". Seems like you are wondering if the things your kids do are equally as good as the "real" hobbies that you used to do. Or like John used to do, or like Rondo the Indian Chief (Ronnie Wallace) used to do w/his kids or like I used to do with all those critturs and such. And the answer? I dunno! My kids play those damned video games too, and I am always thinking it an incredible waste of time. I have even played the dang things with 'em, but to me, just because the graphics get better and better, it's still the same thing since Space Invaders. "They're comin at ya and you try to shoot 'em down". As far as I'm concerned I wish to God the things'd never been invented. But, that's just me. At least one of my sons is playing basketball for the brand new high school, and another one plays guitar, and my daughter is almost a licensed Marine Engineer working on the same ships I used to work on. And another son is an incredible snowboarder and winner of the Haines Big Air Competition up in the Yukon Territory. So....it seems like the video games have not completely taken away their lives. The thing I don't like about those games is that if you fuck up, you just start all over again and have a "new life". No real "payment for error like in a baseball game when you miss the pop fly, strike out, or-God forbid-ya forget to take care of your turtles and ya find 'em all floatin' belly up!! Or, well hell! Just think of it John Richeson! Iff'n ya screw up when up on a tall building washin' some damn window, you could fall a long way to that sudden stop at the bottom! So, yeah, I am more for "reality hobbies" other than video games, fore shore...
Maybe you should teach 'em to play chicken with a pocket knife where you have 'em throw the knife between each other's feet. Once a friend of mine did NOT chicken out, and I stuck my knife right through his Wranglers '70's square toed boots into the top of his foot! But, he didn't flinch. Or, play that hand slap game where the other guy puts his hands on top of yours and you try to slap the tops of his hands. We actually used to play that one where you slapped the other guy's face! Man, that brough an immediate consequence for an error! Oh well. Just ramblin' now...
These are some of the things that interested me as a child and a teenager: ballet, piano, drama, crochet, embroidery, drawing, making models, puzzles, ball-room dancing, writing, reading, talking.
Now that I've realised I will never dance on point shoes and that I don't want to be air-brushed by Hollywood, I am interested in writing, reading, talking, trying-to-play-the-piano-as-well-as-I-once-could, music, education, art, walking, eating tasty food, sharing a good wine; and finding silly/funny video clips, jokes and Smileys to put on The Way Corps Site (the last with thanks to John Richeson's coaching!)
My children's hobbies have included: hockey (on turf not ice), Aussie rules, swimming, Lego, electronics, Robotics and Mindstorms, paper planes, radio controlled model planes (thanks for prompting me to "say" something, John), drawing and painting, piano, art, Warhammer, making funny videos on our digital camera, and eating tasty food. One of my sons is so keen on delicious feasts that he has become an eager-to-learn cook. He begs me to let him cook the omelettes because his are so much better than mine! YEAH!
My other son and I are now disputing whether or not these things I've listed are actually "hobbies". He reckons that a hobby should involve great expense and require fine skill - like building model planes or putting together a Warhammer army. This definition would require me to delete just about my entire list - but I'm really not that boring, honest - and it could explain why I'm broke!!!
...just checked my grandfather's Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary, which has this definition: "a strong, active horse: a pacing horse: a subject on which one is constantly setting off, as in 'to ride' or 'to mount a hobby': a favourite pursuit."
So let me know if I've digressed from the topic of this blog, won't you, Joe! ...but then, that's one of my hobbies too.
Joe, you really need to get into the habit of carrying a camera everywhere you go. I'd have loved to see a photo of that. Remember when that big football player, Rosie Greer, I think it was, took up needlepoint back in the 70s? Talk about a man being secure in his masculinity. But then, who was going to tell a guy that big that needlepoint's for girls??
I'm sure when we were kids we got a lot more fresh air and exercise, before the era of video games and DVDs and VCRs and 5 zillion cable channels and two computers in every house changed all that. Don't worry, though. Eventually they get tired of sitting glued to a screen shooting at stuff. Or they don't. It's a better hobby than stealing cars or knocking off convenience stores, and at least you know where they are. :)
Calif. John, your family rivals the Swiss Family Robinson clan. How great it is that you share in so many activities. Playing music together is such a cool thing if you can do it. Except for my son, who plays a little bass and guitar, no one in our family is terribly talented in the musical category. That didn't stop us though. Back when the family was larger (and younger!), sometimes everyone (aunts, uncles, grandma, cousins, everyone) would bring instruments to summer family gatherings--trumpets, guitars, banjos, accordians, drums, whatever we could find, and we'd march around the yard parade-style, tooting and strumming and banging away. It looked like an episode of the Little Rascals with a taller cast. No one would ever mistake us for the Ohio State marching band, but we sure laughed.
My Dad & I hated each other when I was young. I left the day I turned 18 and he was glad of it. We "marked and avoided" each other to use a term. We were the dictionary definition of the term "generation gap" when it was first coined back then.
Turns out we were a lot alike. Turns out both of us were wrong and both of us were right in some ways. We both changed night and day.
Decades later...we love and respect each other and regret those stubborn years and how we reacted. We have made up for it long ago.
Hmmmm....maybe this will happen with others with whom we had past conflicts while involved in our ministry? People change.
I digress from the topic of hobbies.....sorry Joe.
One hobby I want to do when I am older....building and flying radio controlled model airplanes. Sometimes I feel too busy to stop and pursue a hobby. I always seem to have a sense of urgency and task accomplishment. Just like my Dad......damn him.
Fishing, I started my son fishing as a youngster in Florida and we've ontinued as he's grown. He gave me (us) a charter trip a few years ago for my birthday and we went out together for a day off the coast. He's continued on his own and fishes now and then with his friends. My daughter too, she can thread a hook and cast. I get tickled every once in awhile she picks up her stuff to go with a friend.
Sports - both my kids played little league, daughter was good at 3rd and a pretty serious slugger, ended up in the lead-off hitters every year. She really tried hard and we rewarded her last year with the best glove we could afford, it's still around. Son played, made the All Star team and for awhile had the local record for "longest homerun", it was over 400 feet, out of the park, across the soccer field and into the street. He played catch for half a season and when he made the All Star team the ump's voted him "most improved". He was the worst catcher when he was asked to fill in, the ump's took more then their share of wild pitches on the shoulder. But he got it and stuck with it. And he could hit. We all share a fondness for baseball, largely as a result of the years they played and Mom and Dad got into it with them. (Go Giants!)
Winter Stuff - both our kids wanted to try snowboarding, so we took up skiing. Through their teen years we made trips together up north of here, Mom and I got ski gear, they got boards. It was a great time - taught them both to drive in the snow going up, putting on chains, even got caught on the road in a white out one year. They learned by doing, and my years in Ohio paid off. It was mostly a "guy thing" there on the road, but they're both good boarders and still board with their friends when they can, have all their stuff. Mom and I are slightly stiff beginners on the ski's but we'll probably get back out in the next couple years.
Art - both kids are into the visual stuff. Son's thing is digital animation, gaming, done some good work and looking now for new opportunities. Daughter's a very good photographer - just got the Nikon P90 and has a great eye for framing and constructing interesting photo's on the fly. Both Mom and I shoot, so it's a shared love.
We like to do games too - at our kids urging we bought a Wii a few years ago, mostly play the bowling and tennis. It's a fun game, try it if you haven't. It's more active and the partnering stuff is fun. Both our kids have had their years in the gaming stuff. We got an early Atari, and then a little TV attached thing, think "Frogger" was the biggie on it. Over the years my son's spent some serious hours playing video and computer games. Hasn't hurt him, that I see. It fueled his interest in animation.
Not to sound pollanna-ish but my son wouldn't tell me something I said was "the dumbest" thing he's ever heard. I just can't hear him saying that, unless it was a joke and he'd be careful to note that I'm sure. I've never struck either of my kids but as he's grown older he's come to respect the years of effort and work I've put in raising our family and I just don't think he'd do that beyond a "Dad, that's a really dumb idea!" said in good humor. I do have dumb ideas, as he knows. : ) But hey, I'm The Dad. I reserve the right to be wrong sometimes. LOL. I'm sure your son will do fine. Ours and their generation are hard to understand sometimes as I look back from this end, but when I consider my own youth, not so hard really.
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