You cannot call reading a hobby but my grandmother supplied me with a subscription to Popular Mechanics, a magazine that is still published. Other than required school reading assignments, PM was my choice for recreational reading. Mechanics Illustrated was another magazine that was available and I had random issues of that. As I recall, it had simpler projects and was aimed at a younger crowd than PM. These magazines lead me to building a variety of “Ccoasters”. These were thrown together from a variety of old wheels, scrap lumber and leftover farm machinery parts that happened to be available. On the farm where we lived, there was a good hill from the big barn to the pond with enough bumps to give a roller coaster effect. The last model I remember had both a steering wheel and brakes for both rear wheels. Earlier models had only a loop of rope for steering and my feet for brakes.
Hey Ops ... did you say "Ccoasters"?!