My first camera was a 110 Pocket Instamatic that I received as a birthday present when I was 9 or 10. After using that for about 3 years I got to use my uncle's FTb one day and knew that I wanted an upgrade! Unfortunately, instead of an SLR, I got a Yashica rangefinder for Christmas. Not a bad camera, but not what I wanted.
A couple of years later I purchased a Canon TX, which was essentially a stripped down FTb (no self timer, top shutter of 1/500) and a cheap 3rd party 135/3.5 lens. I loved it, but when I loaned it to a friend to take on a trip it was stolen. His parents made good on it and my next purchase a few months later in early 1980 was an A-1. I shot photos for the high school yearbook with that one, and acquired a Tamron 70-210 and a Canon 28/2.8 to go with it over the next year.
The A-1 and I went off to college where I started shooting for the school paper and yearbook. The early stuff was pretty bad, but over the next 4 years I acquired better skills and more gear. By the time I was done with college, the A-1 had a motor drive, and I had dumped the Tamron in favor of primes, ending up with a 85/1.8, a 135/2.0, a 200/2.8 and a 300/4.0 to go along with the 50/1.8 that came with the A-1 and the 28/2.8 that I had picked up in high school. Oh, and I got my FTb, having purchased one used to use as a second body.
In early 1984 I also got a Hasselblad 500C/M, but had to sell it the next summer to pay bills.
After college I shot quite a bit for fun for the first couple of years, up until a couple of years after my first daughter was born. Then I kind of went dormant, with work, kids and joining a volunteer fire department consuming my time and so the cameras only came out for the usual birthdays, holidays and vacations, along with several family weddings. My wife did buy me a used F-1 (1st gen) in the mid-90s but the quality of my photos declined.
Things picked up about 10 years ago when my youngest brother gave me a 30D for my birthday (history repeats?) because he was tired of watching me work the old film gear. I replaced the kit lens about 8 months later with a 17-85 and added a grip. My middle daughter now has this combo, sans the grip. About 5 years ago I got a 70-200/2.8L IS II for Christmas. Two years ago I picked up a used 50D, but the shutter button stopped working properly last winter so last spring I upgraded to a 5DMk3 and a 24-105 to go along with the 70-200 and got a 2x III extender. I have been shooting much more in the past several years, getting better again, and learning Lightroom.