Star Wars was everywhere when I was a kid (I was born in '75 and I am talking about the early '80s). Kids my age or a little older talked about it all the time. My neighbor who was 3 years older than me had a Darth Vader poster in his room which fascinated me to no end. Darth Vader was the coolest looking "being" I'd ever seen.
I went to summer camp in '82 and the kids were constantly playing "Star Wars", and I always got to be Darth Vader, using a stick for a light saber (or "life saver" as some of us thought it was).
Around this time my neighbor (the one with the Darth Vader poster) gave me some Star Wars toys, including the awesome (and expensive) Millenium Falcon model, Lukes land speeder, an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter. I also got Boba Fett, Hammerhead, Greedo (I think), Luke Skywalker (in his orange flight suit), and Storm Trooper action figures. Unfortunately, he didn't want to part with his Darth Vader action figure; either that or he'd lost it—either way, I didn't get it.
So from my earliest memories I was around all this hype surrounding Star Wars, and the whole thing fascinated me, especially Darth Vader, but I'd never seen any of the movies.
The first time I got to see Star Wars was in or around '84 on TV. I think it was the first time it was broadcast on TV (correct me if I'm wrong), but either way, it was a huge event for me. I finally got to see those toys, posters, and things I'd heard come to life, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Sometime around '85 or '86, my younger sister and I spent the day at our grandfather's house and he had a VCR (we didn't get one at home until '88) and he let us rent a couple of movies. I rented Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, which was awesome.
After we got a VCR, I rented those movies quite a few times, but I never rented ESB because for some reason, I thought I'd already seen it. One day I decided to rent it "again" and soon realized that I'd never seen it; so that was a nice surprise.
Years later when I saw the SE on video, I thought it was an interesting novelty; until I learned that the OOT was being replaced (rather than supplemented), at which point, I was furious. I lost respect for George Lucas at that point. It is hard to respect someone who is a vandal, revisionist, and just plain doesn't think correctly relative to normal human nature. People naturally place value on "original" as opposed to knockoffs or hacks, and people naturally tend to want to preserve significant aspects of history. George Lucas is aberrant in this respect; i.e., his head isn't screwed on right. On top of that, he is an established hypocrite, given his stance on the colorization of old B&W movies:
"I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them." - George Lucas expressing concern over the Colorization of black & white films