Grew up in Brooklyn, and my first off the rack purchase was July/August of 1974 - Astonishing Tales 26. I still can't fathom that I was so close to the the silver age start (just 12/13 years prior) but I had a hard time finding any back issues. That news stand closed within a year or two so I was relegated to new comics from a news stand that was closer to school. It wasn't for another couple of years, probably 1976, that I started to pick up on the hobby but I was pretty much on my own since neither of my parents really "approved" of wasting 25 cents on a comic book. Of course, at this time my father made around $6,000-$8,000 a year and you could buy a car for around $2,000 so a quarter meant something for them.