Summer of 81. Moldvay wasn't available yet in Anchorage; and Andrew was running from his older brother's AD&D books. I was 11 ¾, not that the ¾ really mattered. It was the summer between 6th and 7th, just after summer camp (I came home and we'd moved - all of about 3 blocks as the raven¹ flies, but about a mile by road...)
In 6th grade, my friend group at school consisted of John W., Jon A., and Ralph O. Plus, Aaron G, in the year below. Sam A. & Paul A. were at a different school. Jon A was a computer geek, as was I - he had a TRS-80, I had a TS-1000 and a lot of carts for the 2600.
John W.'s friend Brian W was not unkind to me at school...
So, I get back from camp, and John W invites me over... we then cross the street to Andrew F's home. And Andrew is running AD&D, with Brice and Brian W. (brothers, a year apart), John W. Aaron G., and me. Somehow, I doubt that any of them continued through high school, but I did. But, through Jr. High, we played a lot of D&D. 3-4 hours during the school year, more like 10 during the summer, per week.
I had a couple other friends, not from school, and I introduced them to D&D - Justin & Casey (Bro/SIs), James B., in about summer 82, using Moldvay-Cook.
Haven't run into any of them since 1990, except James B.. I had his kid as a student in 2008. And I've subbed for his mother, multiple times. When I was still subbing, I was usually the second call... Fond memories, many, many years of them. I've also subbed for Justin and Casey's mom... odd, that.
I'd probably have dropped gaming in high school, had it not been for Tyler N., Mike S., and Rick S. Last I heard from Rick was High School, Senior Year for me - his junior year in college - he invited me to the university gaming night for some SFB. Mike S, last I heard from was a collect international call from a German prison. Tyler N. was at the 10 year HS reunion. (Yeah, my high school was new enough that it was doing 10 year reunions.)
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¹: Anchorage has no crows, only ravens, so no crow would have flown that way.