I was a plane nut from the time I could look up, I guess.
Oh, so was I. My dad was in aviation, so the progression was natural. Probably my favorite memory as a kid was watching an SR71 fly straight down my street in 1970, ~1000'AGL at about 200kts, as the a/c was clean. He was supposed to be over the shore of Lake Erie an hour prior (we were waiting for him there as we knew about it), but didn't show up, so we went home, just a mile south of the shore. A couple of minutes later, I'm playing out in the neighborhood street, and here he comes, literally straight down broadway, and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs calling for my dad, who's in the house. He got out just in time to see it as well.