Hams, being by nature solitary creatures who normally have a wall of electronica between them and other humans, are not often blessed with excessive amounts of in-person social grace. Perhaps they simply weren't prepared to deal with walking a new person through what amateur radio can be. Perhaps they were just plain busy; as Jim pointed out, if the people you tried to interact with were focused on some activity, perhaps they simply didn't relish interruption. Nicely and cleverly said.

Our club had 4 stations to set up for FD, and 4 main operators, with 5 other operators sitting in, including a 10 yr old.
We had maybe 10 other visitors. I see a dozen breaks in my operating log of 15-90 minutes each - to rest, eat, chat, and greet, and to answer questions. So I remember several folks stopping by wondering what CW was etc.
Our largest club issues are: an ageing membership ( less physically capable), and a need for more folks willing to help with set up and tear down, as well as more ssb, cw, digital operators. Each year, be it for a contest like the OhQP, OSPOTA, June VHF contest, the Jan and Feb CQWW 160m contests ( cw and ssb) , we seem to find 1 or 2 more folks with an interest in what we are doing. So its a slow process to grow our group, and new faces are welcome. But as another so adequately stated above, "welcome" isnt always communicated as well as we would like.

Yet, every club seems to have 2-3 folks who are good people people and that bridges the gap.
Clearly I fall into the contester category, but among the help at set up/tear down are others who far prefer EMMCOM, PR, social events, and technical areas. We even bought a hexbeam for contests/FD and over half of the contributions came from those other folks who dont show a big interest in contesting. A nice indication of how club members support each other, even when our interests differ.
Try another couple of clubs til you find one that appeals. And good luck.