How were you introduced to D&D?

For me, my father bought me the Basic boxed set back in the late 70s. My brother and I had no frame of reference for RPGs, had never even heard of such a thing. In fact when we first opened it we told Dad it was defective because the game board was missing. We fumbled around for a couple of months and then got the original DMG. The “sample dungeon” and the associated example of play was a real eye opener 😂. We eventually found a few other kids to play but it was definitely a slog trying to figure it all out with zero guidance.

How were you brought into this amazing game?