How did you get started playing The Sims?

Well, to answer my own question, I started right at the very beginning when Sims 1 premiered in 2000.  I was a telemarketer and I was put in charge of the back room and part of my duties was to collect and redeem the pop bottles from the break room and take them to a grocery store that was at the other end of the mall where we were located. At this time, Pepsi was doing this bottle cap promotion where you would enter numbers that were under the bottle caps, so I would snatch the bottle caps before taking them to the redemption center, and I took them home and entered the numbers. 

One of the prizes that I could earn was The Sims, and I saved up enough bottle caps to get a free copy of The Sims. (I also saved up enough to get other cool prizes like mittens and koozies and the like, lol!) 
Well, back then, all I had was a Windows 95 computer, so that's what I played Sims 1 on.  I took forever to collect all of the add-ons, so by that time, Sims 2 came out. And I finally upgraded to a Windows 98 computer.

It took me a long time to get Sims 2 and get all of the add-ons I was still playing catch up when Sims 3 arrived.  Sad to say, but I never got around to playing Sims 3, and then it was 2014, and they announced The Sims 4, so I skipped Sims 3 entirely and went straight to Sims 4.  And then about a year later, I joined the old Vanilla forum. 

And here I am, 10 years later!

Okay, so what's your story?