The first home game I ever played was at a friends house as a child, but don't remember much of it.
My first real cash game I ever played in was last year though in September. A buddy of mine I hadn't seen in a while asked if I wanted to come play poker, but I had no idea what the buy in was, or if there even would be one. I knew nothing of poker at the time, and had to study the hand ranking chart before I went.
Buy-ins were $25-$100 and we had multiple people buying in for $100 and buying back in. I bought in for $25, and was terrified. I don't even remember the denom breakdown or blinds we had unfortunately. We played with what looked like 2-3 mixed sets of dice chips, poker stars "dice" chips, and some other equivalent.
As the night progressed, they decided to raise the blinds every half hour because they wanted to end it sooner since more and more people began to show up and it started to become a party instead of just a small poker night. It was a sh#tshow, and I was so lost in the sauce the entire time.
I walked away with $147 that night, and man, that got me hooked.
I don't think I am a good player yet, but I am not sweating bullets anymore playing with $20 buy-ins