i got into batteries first. i was interested in the big, silver-colored, aluminum flashlights the local police used to carry. they usually came to visit (my mom was a nurse that usually patched them up, my grandmother was a chef that usually stuffed them during their shift), and let me play with the lights, but i always took them apart, to check out the batteries. i was 4-6 at the time. i used to go in my mother's purse when they gave her one, and take it apart and play with the batteries doing some experiment i used to see on mr. wizard or some other science show on tv at the time. i do remember finding leaking batteries a lot. Then i got a g.i. joe with the underwater scuba kit, and an astronaut one with a flashlight. i would beg my grandpa to get batteries for the dpv (diver propulsion vehicle) and the g.i. joe would scuba around the tub while i bathed, then in bed i would put the batteries in the astronaut flashlight (it actually looked like a reflector for an old polaroid flash bulb), and fall asleep before i could turn it off.
I went into the coast guard about 12 years later and got my very own right angle olive drab flashlight (1981). prior to that i was using grandpa's g.i. flashlights he used in the merchant marine. in the police academy, we had to drill with 3d maglites in our off hand and when i hit the streets, everyone told me to get the sl-20 or mag charger. (i started carrying a mini-mag in my pocket as a backup) one of the guys who worked with streamlight doing repairs showed me how to fix them because he was retiring and i had a bug for tinkering with everything (trigger jobs, tritium sights, ported barrels, etc). then one of my co-workers stole my sl-20x, and even though we were trained to use the lights for self defense, some of the guys got carried away, so i bought a new stinger. then the strion. then led mods. then high powered led pocket lights, that's when i realized, i stopped drinking to save money for more flashlights...
