Heh, funny how we all sort of rumble along. I started formally playing/DMing in 1977 myself, have had to put play on hold a few times due to life, but always knew I'd be picking the dice back up.
My first character isn't even remembered by name. A new friend at the Academy introduced me to this new game, I had to try it! Spent a few minutes with his 3 little books and chainmail [wood grain box, for those keeping notes] and promptly died after opening our first door. Ya see, there was this medusa on the other side....we picked the wrong door and found the back way into the level monsters lair. All three failed our saves, TPK.
I must be a masochist, we couldn't roll new characters fast enough, we were determined to avenge ourselves! Mike also exposed us to EPT and T&T - it was downhill from there. When we found this set of 'other' brown books at Games of Berkeley, back at the original Telegraph Ave store, it was icing on the cake.
It's funny, I saw several of our old crew this last weekend at my nieces graduation, from the same academy (CMA, Vallejo). Mike lives in Seattle and only plays computer games, Doug turned into a mundane and my brother in law Dan hung up his dice years ago, but still computer games. Many others faded away, destination unknown.
I have players who are older than I, so we must be doing something right! It keeps the brain flexible, the sense of wonder alive. One couple drives 2+ hrs. on months we game, then stay overnight. Talk about commitment <G>.
Will we be playing in another 10 years? Time will tell, but I strongly suspect so <G>. We're restarting next week, dice junkies to the end!