I would say three things got me into the hobby, and specifically Mopars 1) Hot Rod magazine 2)model kits 3)my dad's hatred for GM products.
Back story, my grandpa on my mom's side owned a cab company in Mansfield, Ohio. In 1966 he bought a bunch of new cabs. I don't know the number, but half were '66 Belvederes and the other half were '66 Chebbies of the same size, I'm not sure which model. The Plymouths were finicky to start in the cold, so grandpa complained about that. But when dad worked for him, he would go to the junkyard every Saturday morning and try to buy steering columns and other stuff that would wear out/break on the GMs.
Now, back to me. I grew up looking at 3 Mopars from a young age. A '66 Coronet 440 ratop(he still has), a '74 Dodge Crestwood wagon with a 400 in it and a '76 3/4 ton pickup, also with a 400.(Incidentally, dad hated the 400. Both of them) Dad used the truck to haul mowers around when he sold Gravelys. It was silver and I just loved riding in it. Around my impressionable years, my brother started getting Hot Rod magazine, while I was reading Off Road. While I was already a Dodge/Plymouth guy(I didn't know what a Mopar was) there was an article called "If it Don't Go, Clone it" about putting good stuff in lesser models. On the second page was a '68 Road Runner with Cragar Super Sports on it. I was really hooked then. I would read those magazines over and over, especially when they included Mopars. Which wasn't often. About the time I caught the bug, our neighbor had bought a '78 Aspen R/T, and it began running up past the house at a rapid pace on a regular basis. So now I loved a Road Runner and had a thing for Aspens. He put a 340 in that car with a 727 and someone called it a "quick change rear end", which I'm assuming was an 8.75, then spun a bearing and it sat and deteriorated until I lost track of it 15 years ago.
I started building more model kits, and when I bought the blue A12 model kit, that was when I forgot about the Road Runner and knew I needed a Super Bee. I scoured Auto Traders, Old Car traders, Wheeler Dealers and anything I could pick up to find a Bee I could afford. Which unless it was free, I couldn't. I didn't get Off Road anymore, but I started getting Mopar magazines. Then I saw a Year One ad with a Bee in it with the N-96 hood. Ever since then I have wanted a B5 Bee with the N-96 hood.

As far as working on things, all my youthful memories were of running around to junkyards to keep cars running and tractor junkyards to work on dad's Ford 800 or looking at Gravelys. I was always helping work on stuff, and when I was 5 or 6 dad took a Gravely 424 in trade and I helped dad and my brother restore it. I can't honestly say I did that much, but I'm sure he pointed me at bolts and told me to remove them, and I helped assemble and gopher. So I've been wrenching and working on things for a long time. Hopefully I'll get good at it pretty soon.