Speaking of "what got us started in HA," I got hooked in 1959 (I was eight) when my grandmother took me with her one afternoon to see "Pillow Talk" with Rock Hudson & Doris Day. The bachelor pad scene did it for me. It's worth watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_xHPXCZu0A When I was 15 I had a little room in the basement that I wired up to control different color lights, a door lock, a strobe light, a color organ and a radio from a little switch panel that I made out of WWII aircraft surplus parts from the Surplus Center mail order catalog. (I still have some of the switches in a cigar box!) Knowing what I know about wiring now compared to what I did then, I am, to this day, amazed that I didn't burn the house down.