Your first Tarantula?

Ok lets hear what everyone first tarantula was and, if you wish to share, the reason/circumstances that you got it.

When I was 7 or 8, my folks got me a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica. One day I discovered that there were large, hairy spiders calld Tarantulas. That began my fascination with them.
My father ended up going to a pet store and bought a WC 6" B. smithi female for a grand total of $20.00, including tank. As it turns out she was gravid and soon made a sac. My folks freaked out and took the sac from her and destroyed it. They thought we were soon to be crawling with thousands upon thousands of baby T's...lol. I named her Henrietta.
A few weeks later Dad went out and got me my first G. rosea which I promtly named George, after the rubber spider of a local horror show host called Sammy Terry. (if your not an Indiana navite do a search on google)

So c'mon peeps, lets hear your stories!

My first T was my MM OBT. It was kinda a impulse buy. When I was a kid I wasn't aloud to keep snakes or spiders. But I was always interested in them. My second grade teacher had one as a class pet, it was a rosea, who we sent to another class room, who had a MM and they bred them, but the year got out before she made a sac. So since I was newly living on my own, and I was at the LPS and saw this really pretty orange T labeled as a orange baboon I decided to buy it, it was either that or one labeled as a cobalt blue which didn't look blue to me at all and for good reason, which I ended up buying a few months later, which turned out to be my female Haplopelma vonwirthi/vietnam. Then I started doing research, found the forums, and here I am.

getting my first tarrantula started when i whalked into my local pet store and saw a b smithi sling and i had alwas loved pets so what harm could a t do so 4 chrismas i asked santa 4 a med exoterra tank and i got it thin i found out that a sling could not live in a 2ft by 1 ft by 2ft tank so i looked around a sum more ts and finnly made up my mined 2 get a 4inch pink toe after that i could not stop whannting morethat was a year ago now i have 7ts and still growing but the funny thang is i still have not got that b smithi but i might this weeked at the reptile show

My first T was a rosie called Rocky,
he was on a pet classified site called preloved,
I had always wanted a T, and after doing my research, I gave the lad a ring,
basically he couldnt wait to get rid of it, so the decision was made
very soon after that I wanted more and more

I now have a collection of about 55 T's and love each and everyone of them

My first T is my G. Rosea Lucille. I made a thread about her saying "Roseas are weird". Haha, I was always fascinated with spiders. My first SPIDER was a black widow, then my brother stuck another female in her cage while I was out and it killed mine. I was so made I wanted to kill it, but I let her go. She was lucky I tell you! But anyways, I just watched the wild widows live their life, have an egg sac, have the eggs hatch, then leave. Got bored of that quickly, so my dad of all people, who is arachnophobic, caught me a supersupersuper large gravid female Wolf Spider who I named Sheila. Then I caught another female black widow, then a male, bred them, had an egg sac, and let her and her sac go. THENNN i got interested with Tarantulas. I loved their size, colors, ectect. But not the prices D: I found miss temper here, Lucille, at a petshop for 12$, and a cage for 15$. She was the best tarantula ever man. But then she got this attitude, and you can't do anything around her cage anymore. But its okay, shes beautiful, so all you really need to do it look at her (:
https://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x314/MookiexLover/?action=view&current=SS850525.flv
Theres my female wolf, and heres Lucille today!
https://2img.net/h/i182.photobucket.com/albums/x314/MookiexLover/SS850565.jpg

My first tarantula was an impulse buy with my friend and I fell in love with her, did some research, [man, pet store people know NOTHING about their animals.] and found some other species I wanted. I now have 1 Avic, 1 Rosie, 2 curly hairs and later this week I'm ordering 3 versi's and smithis. :DD

A tiny rosea from spiderpatch.com Sadly it escaped. I was just a kid back then. I had it awhile and it never even molted. I later got a rosea that turned out to be male after a few molts. Sent it off and never heard back or saw any slings from the loan.

My first was a Beautiful Rosie. That I later named Odysseus. I always walked past this petco near my house on the way home from my dad's house. I always saw her laying in the cage..no hide..Barely any sub. So one day I felt so bad I bought her..Spent all my christmas money on cage/supplies..etc. Long story short, I hid her in my closet for about a week until the crickets started and my Dad found out..Got whiped lol. He decided since I wanted it that bad I could keep it

I've always been interested in arachnids. Back when I used to live with my parents I wasn't allowed to have any animals of my own. Back in November '08 I ended up buying an Emp Scorpion, not knowing much about husbandry, feeding habits etc. I honestly LOVED this scorpion. She was about 8 inches but so nice. Well I ended up over-feeding her and she died late January. Over the next couple months I researched as much as possible to make sure that didn't happen again. Long story short, two months ago I rescued an immature male G. Rosea from a run down pet store and now I have six T's and a Dune Scorp and the collection is still growing!

My first T was an impulse buy with no reasearch into care. I just wanted it because my roommate was skittish about it and I wanted to freak her out. Turns out she was ok with me having it. I started looking around for care guides, found the T.us site, and the addiction started.

This same T, a G Rosea, just laid eggs last week. She was gravid when I bought her!

My first was a B.smithi unsexed subadult called Ruby.
I got her/him at the bts show this year..
Why because redknee's were the only t I could look at with no fear because before march I feard spiders.
I now have a juvi one inch albop unsexed and a subadult female PZB that is great.
I did research G.pulchra but the PZB named Beauty came up for sale first and I have no regrets on buying her.