Hi Jeff,
Congrats on the moderator position. I fooled around with homebrew xtal radios and tube breadboards at a very young age as well. That was great fun! I remember running the xtal radio into the input of a hi-fi amp. Wow the fidelity was awesome (wide bandwidth).
When I was about 12, I took my original Rocket Radio (wish I had it in the original box today!) and reassembled it in a plastic pill bottle which formed the handle of an umbrella. The crystal earphone and cord would wrap up and stow in the end of the handle and the cap would go on when not in use. The umbrella made a great antenna. I remember standing out front of the YMCA downtown in rainy Vancouver , BC, waiting for my folks to pick me up after swimming practice while keeping dry and listening to one of the powerful local AM stations.
It has been a long while since I listened to AM broadcast radio with a passive crystal receiver, but I never did outgrow playing with tubes and hi-fi amplifiers.
Maybe others will share their crystal radio stories, at least those old enough to know what one was.
Rob