My elders where in contstruction with fairly low pay for lots of physical work. So my elders saw my interest in electronics and afforded me every opportunity to do something not in the same line of work they endured. That included buying me books to further my studies. They also bought me electronic toys knowing that once I got "bored" with the toy, I would at some point be opening it up to see what made it tick.

There are all sorts of electronics besides computers. A CPU is a very small shrunken sets of transistors that are too small for anyone to interact with other than through software (realistically that is). However, older "computer" devices used components large enough you could see and manipulate by hand. The traces on the boards were large enough you could physically scratch/break, and re-wire (reprogramming) causing the device to do something new. To the point, at some stage, stickers reading "No user servicable parts inside" became a thing so people would stop tinkering. That sticker has now been replaced with an apple shaped logo, but they pretty much mean the same thing now.