Hobbies Can Help Define Us  (2022)    

What were your hobbies in childhood and adolescence? Did one or two of those hobbies influence the person that you became? 

Most children and adults have at least one hobby. Many adults had a long string of hobbies when they were young. These might have been collecting old coins or stamps, building bird houses, playing checkers or card games, participating in various sports, or going fishing and hunting. Parents, even generations ago, often urged their children to explore diverse leisure activities to discover their emerging interests and aptitudes.  

Sometimes our childhood hobbies or interests shape us in profound ways. My younger brother started playing the piano at about eight years old, and his long career has involved writing, performing, and teaching music. I wanted nothing to do with my parents’ encouragement for both of us take piano lessons. For me, there were more fascinating outdoor and indoor alternatives for my spare time.  

I tried for many years to find at least one sport, hobby, or pursuit that I thoroughly enjoyed and had superior talent. The problem wasn’t my satisfaction engaging in many different activities. It was my average or so skills at any one of these. Over time, I discovered that if I had any distinctive characteristic, it might be a heightened sense of curiosity about the world and the people in it.  

My hobby in middle and high school might have been ham radio, if I could have raised the funds to buy the equipment. With three siblings and a father who was a paper mill electrician, that expense wasn’t a serious consideration. What my parents did allow me to purchase one Christmas was a Hallicrafters S-200 Legionnaire short-wave radio. Priced at about $70 then, it was the best gift that I had ever received. 

Yes, I could read about Norway, Egypt, and Ecuador in encyclopedias, but listening at night to the English-language broadcasts from international radio stations in those and other countries was much more entertaining. Their programming was usually focused on history, culture, folk music, the arts, and politics of that country. 

One of my favorite shortwave stations to monitor during high school was Radio Havana Cuba, partially because I liked Cuban jazz (almost as much as the rock n’ roll on Radio Luxembourg). This Cuban station also provided a sharp contrast to American news reporting. During the early stages of the Vietnam War, I remember listening to Havana broadcasts that were describing particular battles, casualties, and other impacts. Statistics and conclusions from it and other communist-influenced stations were so different from the same day reports from the BBC, Radio Free Europe, or the Voice of America. 

For international short-wave listeners, there was a spirited competition to collect QSL cards from as many countries and radio stations as possible. QSL is code for the confirmation of receiving a radio transmission. International shortwave stations sent QSL cards to listeners who contacted them and could verify reception of their radio signal and programs. Reports from listeners around the world allowed the stations to estimate the size of their audiences and the reception quality of their transmissions. QSL cards were usually colorful postcards with graphics or images that conveyed an impression of the country or city.  

Receiving a QSL card from an international station required a listener to describe the time and date of the contact, the broadcasted radio frequency, comments about program content, a signal report, and occasionally the listener’s radio model and antenna configuration. Some international stations had strong signals that any shortwave listener worldwide could receive. The challenge was to receive international stations with less powerful transmitters and weaker signals. To improve my radio’s signal reception, I climbed atop the roof of our house and tested different antenna arrangements using strung copper wire. 

This shortwave radio hobby influenced me in several ways. Deciding to pursue an electrical engineering degree, I concentrated on communication, antennas, and propagation. Later I had less interest in technology issues and more curiosity about the behavioral, ethical and social aspects of decision making and management policy. For years, I even taught occasional college courses in international management. 

Like childhood, retirement years can offer the more fortunate and curious the freedom for cultivating new hobbies. I’m somewhat of a dilettante or dabbler with many hobbies, whether family genealogy, beekeeping, biking, kayaking, golf, or making walking/hiking sticks. If it were possible to live to be 300 years old and be in decent physical and mental shape, I imagine that I would still want to explore new hobbies.  

Regrets, I’ve had very few. A minor one, though, is a common complaint. Many parents pitched out our baseball or sports card collection. Not only did my mother toss my baseball cards, but she also trashed my QSL card collection stored in our attic. Losing old baseball cards bothered me a lot less than deprival of my 100 or so QSL cards. After all, I spent many late nights straining my ears to detect weak radio signals to collect some of those QSL cards.         

We must recognize our great fortune to be able to explore different hobbies and potentials for personal fulfillment. Children and adults in parts of the world don’t have that luxury.