Started when I was in the Navy in 1980. . . My ladyfriend at the time was out of town on business, and I was planning on staying on base and reading. My friends had been telling me about the AD&D game they were playing for some time and my response had always been 'that sounds silly',
That weekend, however, I decided to give it a shot and had a blast. Have played on a pretty regular basis ever since and have played a wide variety of systems.
I'm currently looking forward to my grandkids getting old enough in a few more years (oldest is 3 now) to where I can start teaching them to play