im a bit younger, (im only 29) and i got my first computer in the early-to-mid 90's but what really got me interested in tech was when a friend of mine's dad was sitting in his basement, he was playing Quake. it looked like fun, so he set me and my friend up on 2 computers and we played a free-for-all the three of us. he obviously owned us, but i wondered how he got the computers to work together like that. i didnt understand how that was done. i asked him to show me, and he did the "high level explanation" basically telling me that this box and these wires talk and let us talk to eachother. this made me curious, so i started reading about networking, and the way the internet works.
when i got a little older, and i was on my own computer i started to want to see traffic and know how ot works, so i picked up a few books, and started poking with some of the older protocols, the names excape me atm, and i started to learn how to redirect people to go places i wanted them to go (spoofing, as you will) and i kept sending my sister from her AOL to random flash sites, like newgrouds and the such, and i found it fun. now im a network security engeneer, and i still have fun, all in the name of research.