I was lucky in a way. My Dad was a career Air Force pilot with SAC. We sold our house in Lincoln, Nebraska and moved to Denver, Colorado. On a rare excursion to his hobby shop, I got to tag along. Since he did professional level model ships, this was usually boring to me but when he went to pay for his stuff, there was a model rocket in the glass case by the register. I flipped out! Mind you, this was BEFORE John Glenn and just after Spunik, so I was a space junkie already in third grade. I think it came in a box. He got intrigued too and bought it. We got to launch it twice in the meadow at the end of our lane. Last seen drifting over a huge stand of pines never to be seen again. We left 4 months later for an extended tour of Europe and spent the next 6 years mostly in Britain and Scotland. My rocketry there consisted of Guy Fawkes night and fireworks rockets (no recovery-heh-heh!) When i arrived back in the US (again, another USAF base) I was flying 1/2a combat planes and the Dad of a friend that flew with us showed up with a Gemini (I think Estes) at the park, flew it once and WHAM! There it was all over. I discovered Estes and Centuri and worked like mad over the summer for rocket money. My first order to Estes was over $300.00 and they called to make sure I hadn't forged my Dad's name on a check! Motors came in round blue tubes and I know the postman hated me because they didn't fit the mail bag so well. Started the first rocket club in our high school and built most everything Estes and Centuri had to offer. As another poster noted, we moved to California after he retired in 1969 and my first call to the Fire Marshal was not encouraging. I needed an adult supervisor. Had to have signed permissions, blah, blah , blah. I had to wait 10 long years before flying (as an adult) as part of my son's Magnet School science project. Met Scott Bartel (blacksky rocketry)during my Shuttle days as an engineer (he was doing Get-a-way specials) and the rest is history. She saw him write a check bigger than our mortgage for two motors and said right there "Oh hell no, you're not doing this!" I promised never to fly an "M" motor to get around that! (Single use K-250's ruled the day back then.) I think my wife still hates him-lol! Still addicted and will mow lawns for rocket money!