My first exposure to CB was a pair of 100mW walkie talkies on channel 14 my uncle gave me for my 12th b'day in 1973.
I was always experimenting with trying to get more range from them, so I added approx 36-40' (or so) of insulated wire from the walkie-talkie antenna, out the window, and to the top of the clothesline pole in our backyard. With that arrangement, I was able to work a base station about 1-2 miles away and he explained to me that CB was 4 watts and 23 channels & that most of the activity locally was on channels 11 and 6. Back then the truckers channel wasn't 19, it was channel 10. Also, SSB was on channel 16 & cb's were only 23 channels.
I went to Lafayette and got a pair of Ch11 xtals and a pair of Ch6 xtals and put them in each of the walkie talkies (one on 11, the other on 6). While at Lafayette I saw a 5W 6 Channel mobile rig called the Micro 66. It happened to use the same size xtals that my walkie talkie used. It was $69 (or so) at the time, which was BIG MONEY then (for a 12 y.o. with a paper route!) So, I began saving my money.
A couple of month's later, I bought the Micro 66 from Lafayette, along with a 12V power supply from Radio Shack, as well as the Super Maxim Antenna & some coax. My Dad & I mounted the Super Maxim on the top of a 16' clothesline pole. The Micro 66 came w/xtals for channel 10, so we added the xtals for channel(s) 6, 11, 14, and I can't remember what else.
There's TWO things I'll never forget; 1 = THAT NEW RADIO SMELL, and 2 = how some of the neighborhood kids & I used to turn a set of the TX/RX crystals into the radio BACKWARDS, in order to get our own 'private' channel.
For Christmas I got a Turner +2 desk microphone and for my birthday I got a Shakespeare Big Stick, which my Dad & uncle mounted atop our roof.
I pooled my XMAS, B'day and paper route money & purchased my first 23 channel radio: the Realistic TRC-52; later, when CB went to 40 channels I got a TRC-422A and a TRC-424.
By age 14, (1975) I had obtained my ham license and was active on 40 & 15M CW with a Heathkit HW-16 & HG10B VFO, but most of my neighborhood friends had remained on CB radio, so I never did really leave the hobby to this day.
