I just thought of another wonderful memory and had to share it. My youngest brother, just five years younger than me with two other kids inbetween, got into coin collecting. We all helped him look at the dates and mint marks on pennies to complete his collection. On warm summer rainy days, he would bike to the bank and buy sacks of pennies. I'm sure they were heavy and I can't remember how he got them home -- he thought baskets on bikes were for sissies, so he must have just carried them.
We would dump the bags full of pennies on a card table on the front porch and we would sit, with whatever neighborhood kids happened to be around, sifting through piles of pennies. The task was simple, so we talked, told stores, etc. It doesn't sound like much when I write it, but sitting there with friends on the dry porch with the rain pouring down just a foot or two away -- it just didn't get much better than that.