Always interesting to hear how people became a Blue. So you had experience of how Everton could disappoint you from an early age, and you still hung in there. I admire your resilience!
When was your first visit to Goodsion? I suppose living in Cumbria, it may have taken a while before you got to see a match there. Mine was in September 1973 and we beat Bobby Robson's Ipswich 3-0. Connolly, Harper and Hurst were the scorers. Fans always say how green the pitch looked when they see it for the first time, but when you walk out onto the terraces (as it was back then) the atmosphere, the whole assault on the senses just takes your breath away, and the pitch looks the greenest green you've ever seen. Well it did for me, anyway.
I took my Evertonian son to see his first match for the Sheffield Utd game the season before last. Sadly, his first match wasn't as memorable as mine, but he loved the stadium experience. I hadn't been to Goodison for quite a while, as we live in the South East and for various reasons it's not easy to get to Goodison, but I got very emotional seeing the Old Lady again. I had tears in my eyes more than once. We were in the Gwladys Street end and it's a good job it was a sunny day and I had sunglasses on, so no one could see my teary eyes. I even started to well up on the bus on the way to the ground. Soft get! lol