heres mine at 5 years old… sometime in 1986
and these around 8-13 years old
Possibly the DuraBeam Flip in 1984, I was around 8yrs old.
I have modded this one with a Nichia 219c, built in charger and red laser :D
If I remember correctly mine was a small disposable penlight when I was around 4 or 5…
thats a weird looking flashlight. 
Mine was metal casing flashlight with one slide updown on off switch and one momentary on switch. It was using either 2x C or D size batteries.
I think I was 7 years old when i used to point it into sky at nights wondering UFO would see my light signal.
ah yes… i remember that… some are made by eveready and some just a generic china brand… you just refreshed my memory.
hehe… seems to me that most if not all members of BLF got facinated with flashlights at a young age…
i think this is the one you are referring to…
Yeah it’s unusual but cool, you just hold it in your hand and use your thumb to rotate the head up and it automatically turns on. Good for standing upright shining at different angles too.
Probably an Eveready 6 volt lantern my dad gave me back in the late 50’s. Something similar to this.
wow… never seen a light like this before…
My dad has several of these .mil surplus when I was a little kid.
Unfortunately they weren’t as sturdy as they look.
I was around 7 yo. I think.
Fulton 991/U
Ya, very similar flashlight you have found there.
It was very user friendly interface. Slide up in lock position to stay on, or click on the red button to have momentary on.
First was standard mag lights, most likely the AA version then upgraded to a long d cell. About 9 or 10 I had saved up enough working on the farm to afford:
Was actually pretty nice at the time but I’m pretty sure my s2+ puts it to shame for lumens and runtime. Those old wet cell batteries weighed a ton toting around all night. We woulda killed to have cells and LEDs back then.
A duracell with a rectangular profile, 2xAA, colored like the cell (black body, brown head), possibly around 5 or 6 year old. More like I took it from his glove compartment rather than he gave it to me
Had so many, I don’t even remember which was the first. Probably some plastic Ever-Ready or something.
First real flashlight was a black multi D cell Maglite back in the mid 80’s. I remember it was expensive. I think it’s a 3 cell light. Still have it somewhere around the house.
I had one like that those, they were called Durabeam, I modded mine with a 9v battery and a 6v kripton bulb, very bright but not for long to be usable…
that’s the one!
That’s the only picture I could find, except that mine was red. It must have been around ’79 or ’80, so I was six or seven years old.
It was also the first time that I witnessed the damage that alkaleaks can cause.
wow.lots of beautiful ancient lights we see here…
Radio hack 5D incan. I had battery club cards for 2 stores at the time. So every 2-3 months I had fresh batteries too. Not bad for a 6 year old kid
No idea what MY first flashlight was .My family had many lights that we all shared . We had Ray-o-vac Ssportsman 2C
My parents always seemed to like 6V flashlights like >
and
I think I still have one of these I bought a long time ago too.
About 30 years or so i had a little oval black AAA light ? with about a six inch goose neck that wrapped around the light and had a little plastic red diffuser that you could snap on and off the head ...
First led was an x 2000
I remember thinking ..."I'm going to go and buy a really nice light " it was $12 and came in a box with a clear front so you could see the light and it sat in a yellow satin bed . SSC p4 ? NW if you consider a low cri dirty brown tint Neutral.