I used to live to the west of MAN..under the Barton special VFR corridor and was thus exposed to many and varied aircraft types at the above, from Woodford and Burtonwood...then came The Observers Book of Aircraft...it was all downhill after that.Recall being "asked" at school if " watching those aircraft was more interesting than listening to me"..daft question and possibly , yes, was the wrong answer..with hindsight.
Thought about Avro's, as was, but a school visit to Chadderton convinced me, in about 0.00001sec that I didn't really want to work in a factory s£$hole like that...went to Halton, survived, and then got to do a lot of stuff not in the recruiting ads..strangely. as it was not "sexy" as they say..but some very interesting and unique engineering c/o MU's various.
Joined the civilian world,. was interogated for my Licence...and got to play with some rather larger types...and the biggest heap of junk ever to fly..ATP...did some ad hoc GA work and also found that gliding was to my livers satisfaction...as well as the flying. Done the odd project management job and now wonder as to modern yoof at times...eg. those things formally known as L/E slats being described as "oars"..and..pushing the rudder pedals makes the aircraft accelerate..."same as car innit"...
There are other occupations I have fancied over the years, but equally, I am glad I chose aviation.