Hello,
That brought back memories.  I first learned about short wave radio from a 
student at The Kentucky School for the Blind.  I was there in the late 
1960's and early 1970's.  After talking to my parents about it my mother 
bought me one of those radios that had a m and f m and short wave on it. 
That is where I first heard about ham radio.  They had some classes for 
Novice license when I was living in louisville that was for KSB students and 
people who lived there could participate in the class.  I went to a few 
classes but never stuck with it.  What sparked my interest at that time the 
director of the Rehab center where i was a student who's name is Fred 
Gissoni talked to me about amateur radio and the licenses and what you had 
to do to get your license.  He is blind and is a general class opperator. 
well, later in my life i got a radio with the same bands but this radio had 
local police and air frequency bands on it.  part of this covered the 146 
meg band so I started listening to hams on 2 meters.  and I finally studied 
long enough to get my technission class license.  At that time the only 
difference between technission and general was the code so I finally got my 
code spead up to 13 words a minut and now I am a general.
but like you it all started with listening to short wave.
Bill Deatherage