From when I was about 8 years old, my father made sure that I played in almost every game he ran at our house. They had games I didn't play in, but they let me first come to all the games as I was growing up (I was a quiet child, sincerely). And when I got curious, the group didn't mind letting a small child join them to play. Dad would answer any question I had, and research those he couldn't immediately answer. This held true in all forms of life. And as I got older and Dad got more involved in Traveller, Dad had me throw ideas to get Traveller to younger people and review products. He had me Beta-testing with my college friends.

As a small child, I grew up in a house filled with books and my parents always made time to make sure I knew their hobby and satisfied my curiosity about it. I think it's easy to put kids in the den, and until I was about 6 that happened. But since my parents hosted gaming sessions, they made sure I never felt unwelcomed or hostile to the gamers and their friends in the home. They invited the gaming group to be another community to influence me. It helps that Winter War, a gaming convention my parents ran, featured a lot of different games to see.

Obviously until my Age of Reason (which was about 8 or 9), I didn't do much with gaming, but watch and get walked/carried around gaming tables and talk to GMs and players, but once I was that age, my parents encouraged me to play games I wanted to, and made sure the GMs of those games, miniatures or role-playing, were okay with children playing.

The large investment was satisfying my curiosity and letting me see their adult games of D&D and miniatures, and telling me constantly that this is fantasy, not reality, and it is a game, not life. It's okay to make mistakes, to lose, and it can be fun to just play. My parents also played board games with me personally at home, and honestly, I think time with kids is the single greatest thing you can do as a gaming family, to further the craft, so to speak. ;) Good luck with the small kids, and make sure that they know that gaming isn't a "quit and leave" kind of experience. It's one thing to not enjoy it, but if they try to quit and come back, it's a great time to teach humility of not always getting your way.

It probably helped that my household was very disciplinarian, compared to many homes in society. Gaming requires discipline.

On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 1:46 AM, Knapp <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

I have small kids and wa wondering what your dads lage investment was.?
On Mar 2, 2016 5:46 PM, "Michael McKinney" <archangel620@gmail.com> wrote:
Well my Dad made a large investment to make sure I appreciated gaming, space, and left the door open for me to find my way into Traveller.
It's been rough, and I by no means want to diminish your own problems. I know Dad had a heart scare in 2011 (unrelated to his death) and it was critical time.
I know that when it comes to the heart in general, it can be frightening and shaky for the entire family. I hope your House is doing well and you are recovering as well as you can.

Dad was not one for ruining a party or a game, so let's continue to strive to better our community and the game, not just for him, but for our own loves of the game.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 11:12 AM, Jeffrey Schwartz <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you to everyone for good thoughts and prayers and such.

Saw my primary care as follow up. He said that there was probably scar tissue in my heart, but the valves sounded ok

When I'm on something with a keyboard, I'll write up the whole tale with full hindsight humor engaged.

Michael, my grandfather and I share the same birthday. He passed away years ago, 3 days before the day. Birthdays have never been the sane since. I have a small clue of what you're feeling, and my heart goes out to you.
Wait, let me rephrase that.
You have my deep sympathy.
I didn't make the connection that the man who wrote the really amazing mini book was the same one who was on a mail list they'd let a dweeb like me join until after he'd passed. (That's an ongoing issue with me. Every now and then I realize that the Traveller Olympians visit here and the gent I'm arguing with us That Guy)

I'm very glad you joined the list and are as active on it as you are.
I hope that when my tune comes, my House measures up as well.
On Mar 2, 2016 10:27 AM, "Michael McKinney" <archangel620@gmail.com> wrote:
Donald McKinney was my father, so don't worry about tugging at the heart strings.
His birthday is Saturday, it's been bugging me all week as it is.

But Jeff, I hope you are getting better, heart scares were something we went through a few years ago. Hopefully, your attack was small and not so painful on your body.
Hope you get well.

*And I have lots of hair. Haha
On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 8:43 AM, <tmr0195@comcast.net> wrote:
Oops, short term memory tripped me up not to mention

to many McKinney's running around for this old retired

submarine sonar tech to keep straight.

Sorry about that Ethan McKinney and Michael McKinney

Tom R
From: "Ethan McKinney" <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
To: "TML" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 11:07:13 PM
Subject: Re: [TML] Ping?

Err, not that I don't care about Jeff, but I can't take credit for Mike's good wishes (he's the one with hair).

Yours,

The unrelated McKinney.
On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 9:19 PM, <tmr0195@comcast.net> wrote:
Evening PST Jeffrey Schwartz,

As Ethan McKinney posted I'm sending positive feedback

your way. I'm not ready to loose another Traveller family

member, like we lost Donald McKinney in December 2015.

Get well.

Tom R
From: "Jeffrey Schwartz" <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
To: "TML" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 5:24:19 PM
Subject: Re: [TML] Ping?
Well. ..fall down go boom is accurate for me

Heart attack Feb 23
100%blockage of the right cornary artery.

By all rights, I should be dead.

It has been a rough week.

On Mar 1, 2016 6:21 PM, "Freelance Traveller" <xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com> wrote:

Things had been going hot and heavy on a couple of threads for the past
week or so, and then today (1 March) I see ... nothing? List faw down go
boom?

--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
The Electronic Fan-Supported
Traveller® Fanzine and Resource

xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com
http://freelancetraveller.downport.com/

®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2014. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.

Freelance Traveller extends its thanks to the following
enterprises for hosting services:

CyberNET Web Hosting (http://www.cyberwebhosting.net)
The Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com)
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Michael McKinney
Best reached by e-mail
Phone: 1-217-778-2154
Email: archangel620@gmail.com
Secondary Email: xxxxxx@valpo.edu