In my undergrad years (early 70’s) I pounded out 20+ page term papers on a manual typewriter. (I still have a warm feeling for ‘white out’ correction fluid, chemical side effects aside.) It was in a state-of-the art dorm in the state of Texas (San Antonio, specically) that lost power if someone spit on the sidewalk. Still remember cranking the doors open for that warm humid air, lighting candles and smugly pounding away at the keyboard. Just an anal “yankee” twerp.
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Doubt not. It’s interesting! Hell, it’s fascinating. It’s a mind-bending trip through time and space. How often do conversations like this happen, with people across the globe and literally spanning generations?
TVeblen:
I don’t remember the Fork 'n Fingers. I think the Black Horse Tavern is still there. One of my best friends from high school has a barber shop in Black Horse.
I haven’t been back to Ravenna since 1970, when I stayed at my sister’s house in Akron. I toured the Kent bars, talking to the students about the national guard “massacre.” I hitch-hiked from Akron back to Concord,Ca. in three days. (Left Akron with $5, arrived in Concord with $3).
I don’t really remember much about Black Horse. The bridge just past it on the way to Kent was a great place to wind up your car to the top in second and listen to the dual glass packs reverb off the sides. We went to Kent to ogle the college babes and see if we could slide into one of the bars without being carded. Not much luck on either front.
I, also, wouldn’t give up those country days. Priceless.
[shameless plug]
For all you people out there reflecting on your first computers, check out my fiance’s site for a trip down memory lane - http://www.unnamedpcmuseum.com
[/shameless plug]
When I was born, we had a black and white TV, but so did every other member of the family. It wasn’t until 1979/1980 that we got a colour television, because my brother was such a s%$! of a baby that he kept my parents awake all night, and they figured they might as well have a decent television to watch while they were up with him. We actually still have that TV. It works, but the picture has gone very green.
Our first computer was a Spectravideo, sometime around the mid-80’s. We didn’t trade it in until our 286 came along, around 1990.
Additionally, we got our first video player in 1989 (which is still the only video player Mum and Dad have - it works like a charm, aside from the fact that you can’t tune the picture in clearly anymore)
We always had two TV sets, but it wasn’t until 1973 when my parents got their first color set – with cable, too. Twelve whopping channels, all crystal clear. The 'rents were “early adopters” – both of 'em remember getting televisions in the late 1940s.
Computers – I remember reading Byte back in '77 or '78, but I didn’t get my first PC until 1982 – an Atari 400.
That brought back a memory Veb. I went off to college in the '70s (in Texas, too, although a little farther north - Hook’em Horns) with a Royal typewriter that my father had used in college in the '40s. A major consideration when contemplating producing a paper was the time involved in typing an acceptable submission (charts? graphs? rapidograph anyone?).
I’ve often thought the college experience must be very different with computers at hand.
At the start of my second year I met the woman who was to be my girlfriend through college. She was one sharp cookie and fall-down-crying beautiful to boot; and that was nice and all, but did I mention she had an electric? With a correction cartridge!
Our first TV sets had rounded corners, antennas, not-so-great picture quality, and four channels, the Big Three and PBS. One of them was black and white. They definitely weren’t built to last. Changing channels required turning a dial which had preset channel numbers…seven or eight in all, IIRC. There was a “UHF” dial below the regular dial which fascinated me, mainly because it never did anything and I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work. To this day I occasionally wonder just what I was missing.
One of my aunts owned a set mounted in a wooden cabinet. The channel number was displayed in a digital readout next to the buttons. (She only recently replaced it.)
Our first computer was something or other by Texas Instruments. We never did much with it; pretty much just games. Our first serious computer was a PCJr. 128K RAM, a weird keyboard that didn’t have a numeric keypad, a CGA monitor (sheesh, does anyone even remember what that means?), one, count 'em, one 5 1/2" floppy drive, and cartridge slots (cartridge slots!!). Starting the operating system…DOS, of course…required loading a disk. And floppies were the ONLY means of storage. We got sound for our games by hooking up an old radio. A few games took advantage of the monitors dazzling 16-color capability, but most of the games, had a grand total of THREE colors. For some reason it was either white, green, and purple or red, yellow, and green. Never all five at once (not that it would have helped much). The PCJr easily had the worst computer graphics I’ve seen in my entire life, and that includes our TI machine.
And then we discovered this exciting new medium called cable, for which we got a channel changer with a mind-blowing 36 channels and a handy plastic box to switch between the basic and cable channels. And we eventually ditched that clunky old PCJr in favor of a more powerful PC which, despite its small monochrome monitor, was by far much better. It even had 640K RAM and two floppy drives! And best of all, it was about the size of a suitcase, which meant that we could carry it around (by far the pinnacle of portable computers).
Man, I’m still in college and already I have all these memories…
I was born in 1940 and didn’t see my first TV until 1948. A neighbor owned that one. Not to be outdone, my father bought one soon after, I think around 1950. Even with the two year lag, that neighbor and my family owned the only two TVs on our street.
I didn’t use a computer until I was 40 and didn’t buy one until I was in my 50s.
Always had a TV in the house as I was born in '64, but I do recall the following very distinctly:
“The following program is brought to you in living color” (cue peacock’s tail becoming colorized).
First computer I ever encountered was at my mother’s office: a punch card operated behemoth. She was very politely told not to bring me back to the office after I knocked a box of punch cards into the floor.
I was born in 1960, don’t remember not having a TV, but I do remember when we got our first color one. I was 7 years old.
The first computer I ever used was in the psych lab at the Universtiy of Louisville in 1982 for a statistics class. I don't remember much about it except that it had some sort of a modem where we had to actually pick up the handset of the phone and attach it to this rubber receptacle and then dial (no wussy touchtones for us!) a number.
My 20-year old neice is astounded to hear her mom and I talk about the "old days"!
