Definitely see if your local community college has any continuing education program or will let you take woodworking classes. I took night classes at my community college in Arizona, and essentially got access to a full woodworking studio beyond anything I could normally afford, schooling on safety and the basics, and a great teacher who would let us work on our own projects with the oversight of someone who knew what they were doing. Definitely a lot of older guys who would pay the class fee so they could come in and work on their own projects.

Although I've since moved to a place with a crappier community college system in which it is more difficult and expensive to enroll just for a single class, so your mileage may vary...