Definitely an interesting topic. Like a lot of you, I grew up around guns, although since I lived in town I didn't get to shoot as much as I liked. The first gun I fired was an Ithaca M49 .22 saddle rifle when I was about 6 or 7. I remember it like it was yesterday, it was an accurate rifle and sized about right for a kid and I could hit what I was aiming at all day long, one round at a time.
When I turned 8 or 9 my folks bought me my own rifle, a brand new Glenfield 75c .22. I still have it, and I hate to think how many thousands of rounds I've fired, how many squirrels/rabbits I've shot, and how much fun I've had with that rifle. I remember the first day I brought it home. I had no idea what a semi-auto rifle was, and boy did my smile spread across my face when I realized it would fire every time I pulled the trigger!! Going from a single-shot to a semi was just amazing!!
Since then, I've moved on to shotguns, handguns, anf finally bigger rifles, but I still have about as much fun today running .22 rounds through my old glenfield, 10/22, 22/45, or the ithaca m49 I bought last year! :-)
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!