In summer 1967 I was a not quite 10-year-old Cub Scout. Besides the much better known Pinewood Derby, my pack also did the Rocket Derby, featuring rubber+propeller powered finless "rockets" running horizontally on a wire. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen, and I still have a Polaroid picture of myself with a winning model.
In spring 1968 as a Webelos Cub Scout (having turned 10 the previous fall), an older Scout brought a grocery bag full of Estes rockets to a den meeting at our local church. When he pulled out a then gigantic Big Bertha it was a done deal for me. We went on to fly a batch of Astron Streak models on 1/4A's. Mine was later lost when I flew it on an A5-4 and we couldn't find it. Some time right around then I got the 1968 Estes and Centuri catalogs and practically memorized them. An Alpha, Mark, Constellation, Space Plane and Avenger followed, along with a couple of Centuri models. My rocketry career almost ended later in 1968 when my Alpha drifted onto a busy street - we were flying out of the parking lot at the Iowa State Fairgrounds - and was run over by "a semi and four cars" as my friend put it. I was about as crushed as the Alpha, but my Dad rebuilt it pretty much from the ground up (thanks Dad!) and rocketry continued. I still have the body of that Alpha.
The next year in 1969 I tailed off and made a failed attempt to exit the hobby, giving away most of my built models. Big oops, really wish I'd kept the Space Plane! But somewhere in the next year or so, I found a copy of Stine's Handbook in the library. Then I went back in with a vengeance, started a rocket club at my junior high school, and went to my first NAR contest - MAR 72 in Davenport IA. I tried to go to NARAM-15 but couldn't get enough money together. In 1975 I made it to NARAM-17 and got my first NARAM trophy from Vern Estes himself. From then through college I started the DART NAR section, drove all over the Midwest every spring to LPR contests, went to NARAMs about half the time and the Internats in 1980, for which I literally skipped my college graduation ceremony. internats, or listen to somebody read 4000 names? Rocketeers will understand.
Then in 1981 I got married, came to San Diego and started working in the SD "telecom valley" world of communications startups. With much less free time, in the 1980s I kept going at a lower pace, mostly attending NARAMs with my Dad. DART had been operating as a pre-Internet "virtual" competition section, but in about 1985-86 we started holding local launches at Fiesta Island in San Diego.
In August 1991, Dad passed away. For those who didn't know him, George Cook (NAR 23105) had been NAR legal counsel in the early 1980s, and a determined competitor despite having only one usable arm due to a major stroke in 1967. Dad was awarded an NAR life membership in 1982 for pro bono legal work on behalf of the association. He built models using a lot of masking tape to hold things down, and employing his teeth as a second hand. We had gone to dozens of regional contests and several NARAMs. His passing almost ended my rocketry career for a second time. I went to NARAM-34 the next year, but after that I went off the grid for about 15 years.
Somewhere in 2006-2007, I got going again, for no apparent reason except lingering rocket virus. There wasn't a particular trigger at first, the reboot was kind of gradual, and I hadn't quite quit altogether. But I do want to give a shout out to Sheryl McLawhorn, who sent me a very kind and encouraging message -- and a bonus kit for a friend -- when when I ordered a batch of stuff from Semroc to get back in the game. That message really put the match to the fuse. I got into HPR at that point, attended Plaster Blasters 9-12, and resumed going to NARAM. Since then I've been going to multiple national events (LDRS, NSL, NARAM) annually, plus flying on the western dry lakes and helping out at DART launches. These days I do lean more to the HPR side where there is lots of interesting tech - composite construction, electronics, simulation, machining, vast motor options, etc.
Fifty years on, it's still the greatest hobby ever.