My first experience seeing High Pressure Sodium lamp at Randhurst Shopping Mall at Mount Prospect, Il.  That was in mid-1970's.  It was a strange color compared to Mercury Vapor lamps.  Since it was up high at the ceiling (approximately 3 to 4 stories high) I was unable to determined what shape of the arc lamp.

Later, I described that to my father and boy, he did his best to described what light was like.  He thought it was a really big neon light.

It was at least a decade later that I learned that it was a High Pressure Sodium lamp.

The first HPS lights I saw was back in the late 70s/early 80s, the HPS fixtures with glareshields on top of traffic lights and the freeways are among the oldest HPS lights here in CA. In '82 I began seeing a few HPS fixtures here and there amid the mercury lights, and it was very unusual! Later all of the mercs were changed to HPS, and I thought they looked dim compared to the mercs, especially the 70w ones. Never liked em since. Oh, I learned the name "sodium" in the mid-late 80s.

Might of been the first day i was born. and when i saw a mercury vapor lamp , i think it seemed dim, and MV still looks dimmer than HPS today! (in my eyes)

I first saw high pressure sodium in the late 70's when they were installed on the freeways to replace fluorescent streetlights.

About 1983..4 - i was ~8. Before i knew, then the "cold lights" mean a more efficient lighting is used for streets (as both fluorescents and MV's available here had cold light), then normal, yellowish, incandescents. But when HPS appeared, the warmer color attracted me and give the question, why the heck they are using inefficient bulbs there.
Only ~5 years later i discover, then there are more energy efficient alternatives, i learned the basic principles and differences between them.

I don't have such experience. I am born in 1970 but the HPS lamp is accepted very quick in the Netherlands.

When I was little and we (my parents and I) were driving at night I would always classify the outdoor lights I saw as the "blue ones" or the "orange ones". I always liked the blue better but they were harder to find.   

Before i knew what HPS or MV or MH was, i Identified fixture lamps as "White ones" or "Yellow ones". when White was MV and MH, and the yellow was HPS. and i didnt really npotice a diff from MV and MH lamps until now.