Weird Hobbies

I posted back in 2022 about retirement hobbies and discussed several common hobbies and talked about my own hobby of metal detecting. Last night I ran across a guy that has the weirdest hobby I have ever heard about. I'll tell you about that encounter further down in the post.

This incident led me to search weird hobbies on the internet today. There are some very strange hobbies that people are pursuing and I guess the sky is the limit on how weird you can get with a hobby. Here are a few of those strange hobbies that popped up.

Toy voyaging. This unusual hobby includes sending your teddy bear or other toy to other places where a fellow hobbyist will host them and update you on your toy's adventure. This reminds me of the days when my two kids were in school and they sent a Flat Stanley to a distant relative. That relative would take Flat Stanley around their town and take photos and write about the places he visited. That was great fun for kids. But for grown adults? That sounds a little strange to me. 

News bombing. Apparently there are people who make a hobby of seeking out news reporters and try to photo bomb the on camera interview. The example that came up in my search showed the photo below of a guy in a costume doing his news bombing. Interesting! I've also heard that people do something similar with Google cars on the street doing the street view filming. People live for that moment where they can jump out on their yard or driveway when the Google cars comes by and then pose for a prank of some kind.

Collecting in-flight sick bags. This is one I don't understand at all. But, apparently there are people who collect these bags as a hobby. The bags I have seen are just plain and white. Maybe there are logos on some airline bags. That is just sick!

Collecting cups. This hobby involves collecting paper, plastic or styrofoam cups with logos from fast food places and other places. I would think this would take up a lot of room in your house. I guess it would be a fairly cheap hobby, especially if you just hung out by the trashcan or dumpster. Strange!

Sand and dirt collection. There are some who collect a small bottle of sand or dirt from places they have visited. I guess they want to permanently have a piece of their vacation. I understand this hobby a little more than others, but still a little different. This hobby leads me to the weirdest hobby I have ever heard of. Read on if you dare!

At a meeting last night for my own hobby of metal detecting I sat with a group of three other detecting enthusiasts. One of them, I'll call him John Smith, took out a small decorated notebook and began showing it to our table. He opened it up and another guy commented about how detailed his writing appeared. Some of us in this hobby, me included, keep a log of when and where we detected and what was found. I assumed John's logbook was just that. He proceeded to tell us it was information on each grave he had visited. Oh, okay I thought. Now I assumed he had visited graves of relatives and ancestors. My wife and I visited a few old grave yards a few years ago to see where some of our ancestors were buried. So, I thought nothing of John's activities.

Then John said he had Bonnie & Clyde, David Koresh and a few other famous people. I thought what do you mean you "have"? At the same time he said he had 242 vials of dirt that he collected and sifted from these grave sites. What!??? Then he showed me a photo of a box he made to hold the vials. The box was a wooden casket he had built with holes inside to house the vials. Each one was labeled with date and name of the grave occupant. I have never heard of anything like this in my life. 

When I searched the internet this morning, the only reference I could find of collecting grave dirt involved collecting it for witchcraft spells. There was no mention of this as being a hobby anywhere. This guy may be the only one in the world that does this. At least I hope it is or eventually these guys will collect so much dirt that these pour souls will have their bones exposed!

Have any of you heard of collecting grave dirt as a hobby? Have you heard of the other strange hobbies I listed above? Do you have a strange hobby or have you heard of other strange hobbies? I'm very interested in hearing what weird things people may do as a hobby.

Retirement is a perfect time to start new hobbies or pursue old hobbies. I encourage you all to participate in a hobby or invent your own weird hobby. Whatever you do, enjoy it to the max and don't worry about what other people, like myself, say about how weird your hobby is!

Now I'm wondering if John is a witch and cast spells with grave dirt. I think I'll find another table at next month's meeting!