Hey Mike, I have a few things I remember from childhood. I remember even as a kid spending every penny I had on cards. I remember when the 1955 Bowmans came out how neat it was that they looked like little color televisions! This is the oldest set I remember, I was 7 at the time. I remember selling a model ship to another kid and using the money to buy packs of cards. I remember when none of us kids could get a Stan Musial card (we didnt know there werent any) and one kid claimed he had one and we went to his house to see it and he seached and searched but couldnt find the non-existant card!! We flipped them and put them in the spokes of our bikes, had fun with them, all the cliche's are true, we did those things. And of course ultimately my mother threw them away.
I bet a lot of the cards I have been buying the last 30 years are cards I owned as a kid growing up in New York!!! I also wish I had someone to sit and share my cards with, but never had any kids, and none of my friends are into the hobby! Oh well, I love the cards anyway, and have my whole life.