How did you get into classic films? (and my story)

My older siblings used to watch movies all the time on (pre-cable)TV, and I used to watch along with them. I remember watching Hitchcock's The Birds for the first time when I was about five, when it premiered on NBC's Night at the Movies, and being enthralled by it. Yeah, they showed that scene with the guy with his eyes pecked out--was I traumatized by that? No, because I was used to seeing footage of the Vietnam War on the nightly news every night.

The stations back then used to "present" movies as part of a program, so it seemed like a special event to watch a movie on TV. One local station aired "The Million Dollar Movie," a daily movie slot which showed the same movie every day for an entire week; you could watch the same movie over and over and pick up on its nuances, so it was kind of like a do-it-yourself film study course. Another station had a "Foreign Film Festival" on weekends; another had "The 4:30 Movie," which featured theme weeks (beach movies, Biblical movies, Martin and Lewis movies, Middle-aged actress horror movies, etc.). The PBS station had a program hosted by Lillian Gish which featured silent classics; a UHF station had a Charlie Chaplin film festival every Friday night. Other local stations had "Creature Features," "Chiller Theater," and a "Dr. Shock" show, all featuring horror and monster movies; the last had a vampirish host presenting the movies, like today's "Svengoolie" character on MeTV. Then there were the "Late Show" programs on local stations. For a kid who didn't get to go to the movies very often, this was a lot of fun (if not more). As a latchkey kid with both parents working, I learned to love watching these movies when I was alone in the house; they were more enjoyable than most of the TV shows of the time. That's still true today; I rarely watch TV shows and prefer a classic movie instead.