Late to the discussion but I was in high school in the early 80s and had never played any RPG although I was an avid fantasy reader. Our school put on a D&D tournament and I joined on a lark. I was voted top player in the cleric class. The people running the tourney were about 10 years older than I was but they 8nvited me to join their game. We played weekly for 3 years.
After people moved away I joined another group that lasted about 3 years, weekly again. Then one more long weekly game where we played the whole Dragonlance set of modules.
So I played pretty much weekly for 9 years then 6 months of Shadowrun...but haven't played live since then...wo 25 years or so.
Well, there's a vibe in the two states that I've always found very refreshing. So hello, fellow Pacific Northwesterner! If you're even down this way, we should meet up for coffee or something. Well, I drink tea, but the sentiment's the same.