My Dad's basic knowledge of the heavens and growing up in a dark sky, rural area in the 50's sparked my interest in astronomy.  Dad and I mail ordered a 6" reflecting telescope in the early 60s so we could study the skies. Unfortunately the factory choose that time to go on strike (Criterion) and we ended up waiting for months. I'm not sure that we ever figured out how to get it properly aligned and the tracking never worked right (or we never figured out how to use it). However, it was still fun. 

I had serious plans in high school to go to Cal Tech and get a degree in astronomy.  However, I discovered the Beatles, bought an electric bass, joined a rock band, and the grades hit the skids.

In spite of that set back, my dreams of studying heavenly bodies carried over to college where I filled most of the dorm room with the telescope. Sad to say we couldn't see much out the dorm room window. You see there was a high rise girl's dorm blocking the view of the sky.  !@#%^&$@^... and me without an inverting eyepiece!

Somewhere along the line my lil bro' ended up with the telescope (I guess so he could take it to college!). I was relegated for years to viewing the skies with binoculars. Then the fires burned bright again a couple years ago and I purchased an 8" Celestron. In spite of the bright skies in Phoenix, AZ I was able to get good use of it. I was just getting going when we decided to move to Maryland. Here we are back in the dense woods. So much of the sky is blocked until the leaves fall.