"The Golden Age of SF is 12"

I've written about this stuff B4, but what the heck: My parents had No Idea what they were doing when they tossed me a stack of old science fiction magazines back in the summer of 1971, when I was 12 years old.
Along w/ writing & music, reading science fiction has bn 1 of the main addictions of my life, & the addiction continues -- just read Ian McDonald's Xcellent CHAGA last wk, probly about the 800th SF novel I've managed 2 get thru.... Don't read quite so many novels these days, but I still look at short stories pretty regularly, & I'm still fairly religious about seeking more Good Stuff I mighta overlooked over the yrs....
Back in '71 I was much less picky. Those 1st issues my folks gave me were a Whole New Thing. Included were a coupla fairly recent issues of ANALOG magazine, then the best LOOKING mag in the field, w/ Xcellent graphics & clear EZily readable type & lotsa really Xcellent artwork by Kelly Freas, Vincent DiFate, John Schoenherr & others. But mosta the stories were ... kinda boring. Howard L. Myers' "Polywater Doodle" was pretty great, just cos it had some HUMOR & action. P. Schuyler Miller's book reviews were Xcellent, clear, modest, down-2-earth. But Editor John W. Campbell Cmd awfully cranky....
The package also included an issue of FANTASTIC magazine, edited by Ted White. The mag was CHEAP, obviously put-2gether on a 20-cent budget, but there was some good stuff in it, OK art, good features & book reviews, & some pretty good fiction, like R.A. Lafferty's hilarious tall tale "Been a Long, Long Time," & 1 of Barry N. Malzberg's better self-pitying cries of anguish, "The New Rappacini."
The same folks who published FANTASTIC also put-out a reprint magazine called SF GREATS, a couple copies of which were also included in the stack. Some of those stories were from the early '60s & grabbed me more than the then-current stuff ANALOG was publishing: Norman Spinrad's haunting "A Child of Mind," Henry Slesar's moving "Beside the Golden Door," Robert F. Young's "Boarding Party," a hilarious re-telling of "Jack and the Beanstalk."
That kept me busy 4 a little while. My folks followed it up w/ a huge book: Raymond J. Healy & J. Francis McComas's monster anthology ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE. With almost 1,000 pgs & over 30 stories, this book kept me busy 4 months. Inside were wonders from SF's 1930's/'40s "Golden Age" like Henry Hasse's "He Who Shrank," Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall," Frederic Brown's cute & silly "The Star Mouse" (which would still make a great movie 4 Mickey Mouse), R. DeWitt Miller's "Within the Pyramid," P. Schuyler Miller's "As Never Was," Eric Frank Russell's "Symbiotica," Ross Rocklynne's "Quietus," & tons more.
Then my friend Barry Anderson stuck my nose in2 Ray Bradbury's THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, & I knew I was hooked 4 life. Bradbury's control of mood & setting, his poetic Dscriptions, his eerie aliens, his encounters Btween human & alien in the middle of the nite next-door 2 a ruined Martian chess-game city -- the amazing ancient atmosphere of the book.... Ah, I was scarred 4 life. & I still hava copy of the paperback on my bookshelf.
It was a coupla yrs B4 I dove-in head-1st & started reading all the SF novels I could grab hold of, all while collecting cheap, 2nd-hand back-issues of the magazines. & it was a couple MORE yrs B4 I started subscribing 2 the magazines, but I'll get 2 all that as this SF memoir continues....

Coming Soon: More music....