"... walked the half mile to the San Mateo County fairgrounds to join thousands of others where I discovered that my son was probably adopted"<p>Nope, you were probably like that when you were a kid. Unfortunately, the "look, but don't touch" mentality has been thought relentlessly to children for the past N years. In some cultures kids, after a certain age, say, 10, are supposed to be <i>totally</i> focused on studying so that they get to a good school, so none of that tinkering stuff. Unless, of course you wanted to belong with the grimy, poor souls who had to work with their hands, e.g. the young boys who were taken out of school and given as an apprentice (my mom made an argument similar to this when I was studying for the middle school entrance exams, when I was 11.)