We didn't call it folk music either. It was just the songs my mother taught us, old mountain songs from her childhood like "The Brown Girl" and "In the Pines". My father built Appalachian dulcimers and when he decided that the only thing you could do with four daughters was form a band, we started going to festivals. That's when I was told I was a folksinger. My passion for Irish and Scots music began as a teen with the realization that alot of the songs we were singing sprang from those traditions.
So I guess folk music was just always there, don't remember when it wasn't a huge part of my life.
HC