Childhood Quirks

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One thing than many of us have in common is quirkiness. It's how we are often described by others due to our habits. I wanted to list my top things that should've flagged my parents or neighbors, that I was autistic. Feel free to contribute your favorite childhood memories, too.
Here's a few of mine:
As a kid, I moved a lot. Like almost every year, sometimes twice a year. So making and keeping friends was even more difficult. When I was 8, I attended 2 schools. The first I remember being so anxious about punctuality that I walked to school at sunrise, before even the custodians arrived to unlock the school
My father was a locksmith at this time and I had been on many calls with him. My neighbor (a boy my age I crushed on) was locked out of his apartment. I told him to wait, I had a key to mine (around my neck) and could let him in. He told me my key wouldn't work and I just laughed at him. I got my dad's pick set out and locked my door. I then proceeded to "practice" and successfully unlocked my own door. I told the boy that now I could unlock his. He seemed impressed and that made me really happy, so I walked over and picked the lock on his door in literally seconds. Much faster than my own. At this he was seemed conflicted. He was grateful to be able to get in his home but then seemed scared. I think it suddenly dawned on him, that if I had wanted to, I could let myself in his home anytime I wanted. I didn't realize it at that time, I just noticed a change in tone. He thanked me and I went home, really proud of what I had done. Later (like decades later) I realized why he was rightfully terrified. I for one, would not be keen to realize my neighbor had the tools and ability to enter my home undetected, let alone their 8 year old daughter. What a freak show I must have made us seem!!

At my next school I was a bit more reserved. I spent every recess under the playground equipment, either looking for pretty rocks in the gravel or writing notes to my only friend in "spy code", which I memorized (a=1, b=2 etc) in papers I had precisely cut into equal sized rectangles for this purpose....

My quirkiness as a kid usually scared others, especially grownups. I was the silent one, usually deep in thought while others were busy socializing. I could spend hours reading advanced topics that no one my age would normally have been interested in. Poisons and explosives were two of my special interests at the time. It was not unusual for me to conduct experiments on my own with scrap supplies. You do not want to know how far I went with some of my projects. Creativity is second nature to me.

Because I was this way, I was not allowed to participate in my school science fairs as a normal student. My entry was not allowed to be judged with the others per the school administration. I was told that I had an unfair advantage. The school gave me a short list of topics I could pick from, as they did not want me to outshine my classmates. Trust me, I easily could without much effort. They were not very creative to say the least.

I made the best of it by finding a loophole in their topics. They said a volcano model was fine, but they did not expect me to make one that would erupt with flowing lava and real toxic smoke plume. The judges made the mistake of lighting the fuse to see what it would do. It set off the fire alarm (as I knew it would) due to the placement of my table right below a smoke detector (their mistake). I may not have won that science fair, but I did get a bit of revenge in. I was not allowed to display at the science fair after that incident. They decided I was too risky for them.

eating the crust all the way around on sandwiches, thus leaving the yummy middle for last. walking around in elementary school making flatulence noises by putting the heels of my hands on the corners of my mouth and blowing raspberry-style. drawing pictures of toilet-mobiles, you know the kind that start with a coffin with a hot rod drive train and a toilet for a driver's seat.

Like you,I loved rocks as a kid. I usually spent my lunch break studying them. Smashing them open and examining them under a school microscope. I was similarly fascinated by bugs, I loved to hold them in my hand, let them crawl around my body.

I was more of a sensory kid than a social kid. I was devastated when I got told I was too big to play in the sand. It was the best experience for me, playing alongside other children exploring the different textures of sand.

Monster movies and such stuff. If I was suppose to draw something in school, I drew the Frankenstein monster (Boris Karloff) the best I could, which at that time was so-so. Or I would draw a werewolf, or a vampire. I use to make or draw places with secret doors. I use to make drawings of torture devices. My talent was so-so, but I got better over time. After making a needlepoint of the wolfman for my eighth grade art class, my art teacher asked me if I ever did anything other than monsters?

In the eighth grade I use to carry around my three inch thick scrapbooks of monster movies. I had two of them. They were organized by the year the film was released. I had separate scrapbooks for Lon Chaney and Ray Harryhausen. They were not as thick. I would look at them during study hall or before school. That's the only reason I brought them. A few kids started calling me monster man and I learned that they did not mean it as a compliment for my knowledge of monster films. One kids sold me my first Famous Monsters of Filmland in the seventh grade for $7. I think he thought he ripped me off. I had what I really cared for. I use to draw him as various monsters, in the style of Lon Chaney creations. They were like movie posters. I thought they were funny. I wasn't very nice.

I still have my scrapbooks, and I've collected all the Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines I cut up for those scrapbooks.

Walking up to total strangers to talk about dogs until they told me to bug off.

Mixing strawberries with various foods. (Like in an omelette.)

Loving spaghetti but without the tomato sauce.

Not only being utterly and thoroughly obsessed with dogs, but wanting to BE a dog. This worried my parents considerably.

- I read all the time, even at school. My teachers all said that was my only problem besides group projects

- In basketball, I would count the seconds on the clock so I could cover my ears before the buzzer sounded

- I had an absolutely furious resting face that I was completely unaware of (I only know now because I looked back at pictures)

- I was an abnormally quiet baby for my first couple months; my mom even thought I wasn't breathing when I was born (I was fine btw)

Me too. With toast, I ate off the crusts, then split the bread thickness-wise, creating two pieces with a crunchy side and a soft side. I ate the non-buttered side first, then the buttered side. Didn't normally use jelly, but if we had apple butter, I would put that on the buttered side before splitting the bread.

I read encyclopedias and dictionaries for pleasure. I especially liked the unabridged dictionary at school, since it had words my home dictionary didn't.

My electronics special interest got a huge boost when I repaired my first vacuum tube radio at age 6. I never had money, so I scrounged parts from broken devices. I set up an intercom system with a neighbor with scrounged parts and wire. The connection between the houses consisted of dozens of segments of wire twisted together and run through the trees between our houses. In science fairs, while other kids made posters or models, I made funtional electronic devices out of scrap and/or household items (for example I made a sensitive microphone from a cardboard box, two razor blades, some wire and a mechanical pencil lead).

At recess, when other kids were playing games, I sat or stood around. I wasn't allowed to take a book out to recess, or I would have done that.

Apparently until age 9 or 10 I was extremely, extremely picky. Aside from a small range of other safe foods, I would only eat boxed mac and cheese, anything that looked or tasted different I refused.
I'm not as picky anymore, but there are still things I just can't eat, though I will attempt out of politeness.