I know if it wasn't for an airshow I wouldn't have been interested in flying. I can pin the moment when I wanted to fly, and it was a high speed pass by a B-1B at the Dallas Love Field airshow when I was little.
I recently got to fly into KOFF. Our T-6B was going to be a static display for our one day there, but it got rained out and we had to leave Sunday. So I didn't get to talk to people about planes and the USAF, but all the waves from the crowd when we taxied out were nice.