I never got to go down and watch a launch in person. When I could afford to take a couple of days off work and stay overnight in a motel room on the off chance that the launch would happen as planned it always seemed that something else was a factor. Once when the weather was particularly clear I did see the faint little streak in the sky and once during a Florida landing the sonic boom woke me out of a sound sleep and wondering what had blown up before I remember the shuttle was due in. I guess that semi-counts.