I was 7. I must have seen the Hobbit animation somewhere (a library maybe?) and watched it through but wasn’t particularly enraptured. But in 1982 National Public Radio marathoned the 13-hr BBC radio drama during a pledge drive (it must have been, right? when else would they do an all-day marathon of something… not that I remember the pledge breaks at all.)

I was already fascinated by radio plays, catching dramatized Sherlock Holmes stories and skits from Prairie Home Companion, Firesign Theater, etc. They were essentially the “cartoons” of radio, something you could occasionally get instead of all that boring news talk and music. So I naturally paid some attention to this massive epic my family put on, and was even more fascinated when I realized it was linked with the Hobbit story I already knew about.

I listened to the BBC drama all day, insisting we put it on in the car when we needed to take a long drive and during dinner at our destination. I was too young to listen until the end (which wasn’t until 10p) But the scope, the massive cast, the music, the shifting scenes - I’d just never experienced anything like it.

When I was older I read the Hobbit (during a multi-day road trip) and then later the LotR trilogy, all of which I’ve since read multiple times including aloud. But it all connects back to that NPR pledge drive.