My dad and I shared a passion for coin collecting. We had a pretty decent sized collection between the two of us, and enjoyed spending time grading the coins and putting them into their little holders. We also went all over the Baltimore/Washington area to weekend coin shows, occasionally buying, always looking at the stuff we couldn’t afford, and talking to the dealers. After I moved out, my collection gathered dust, and my dad continued to collect proof sets each year. I’m glad I have the memories of the time we spent together doing this.
So, tell me about the hobbies you shared with your parent(s). I’d love to hear.
My brother and I worked on my dad’s baseball card collection with him. I have no idea what we did - I guess just general card-related bookeeping. For some reason there was always work to do.
We had our own collections, too. Dad didn’t help us with ours. Well of course he bought us cards, just didn’t do bookeeping with us.
We all went to baseball card shows together, and to card shops.
Our house got robbed when I was 18 and a bunch of dad’s cards were stolen. Since we had kept such good records, he actually got most of them replaced by insurance. But he doesn’t consider them “his” cards anymore - they’re not the ones he got when he was a kid. He still has them but no one’s really touched them since then.
I still have all my cards, but my brother sold all his when he was in college.
Reading detective fiction of the “lowest” type I got from my father.
My father went in for Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner. I was more into European authors. Simenon, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh.
Doing crosswords I learned from my mother. I quickly became much better at that than she has ever been.
No hobbies with my father however my son and I share several hobbies. Wine and beer making, gardening, making jellies and jams and cooking. Several other hobbies we don’t share.
Early on, my Dad did some woodworking and built some furniture on his Shopsmith. I still have one small table. He taught me how to do simple stuff and also how to stain and finish pieces.
He also taught me how to work on cars, which I did myself until I could afford not to.
My father had zero interest in sports. My brother and I share that opinion today.
Coins, cars/motorcycles/mechanic stuff, and having my mother pissed off at us and not speaking to us.
Even though Dad and I shared hobbies over the years, we rarely did them literally together. We had different approaches; in coins I was more type and he was date-and-mint, cars he was the fix-it type and I’m more the modify and improve it type, with mother my shear existence was enough to anger her and he had to work at it. But we always cooperated and helped each other as best we could.
My dad was a huge baseball nut, the first thing I learned to read in the newspapers was the box scores. I followed in his footsteps on that, but otherwise, we had nothing at all in common, as far as interests or hobbies. I don’t think my mom had any hobbies as such, women were just housewives in those days. She loved fishing, even into her 80s, but I never bonded with that activity.
With my Mom, crossword puzzles. Specifically, the New York Times Sunday puzzle.
Mom is gone now, and I can buy the collections of Sunday puzzles that the NYT publishes. But I still remember racing with her to get our local paper that had the NYT Sunday puzzle. First one to the paper delivered to our doorstep gets first crack at the puzzle!
My Dad and I are both ham radio operators. We don’t usually do it together, but we do attend trade shows and geek out over various aspects of radio when we have a family dinner.
My Mom and I were both volunteer EMT’s with the local rescue squad and fire department.
But we always cooperated and helped each other as best we could.