My own FM radio station with 2 miles signal reach in 1987 (high-school) with a radio show broadcast from my room.
I built it from scratch (copper plate, BF transistor and all) based on some UK electronics magazine circuit diagram.
I was definitely the first person in my elementary school to have a Harry Potter book, but I can’t speak for the whole town. It was rather funny: I got into the series when only one book had been released in the United States. The rest of the school got really into Harry Potter the next spring, when Chamber of Secrets was about to come out in the US, and there was a day of “Why aren’t you reading Sorceror’s Stone?” and no one believing me when I said, “I read it back in November. Now I’m reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.”
(I’m sure a bit of that was because 5th graders aren’t notoriously big Douglas Adams fans.)
Caller ID.
This ain’t even out yet.
Yes, it’s a little more expensive but worth it in the long run. They are also researching the addition of a MSE fire inhibitor.
1977: First Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks in Oswego, IL.
In the early 80’s, I used to do ‘genealogy’ on D&D players when I found a new one in that small town. “Oh, you play D&D? Who’d you learn that from?” “John Smith.” “Ah, yes. John learned to play from Brian, who learned from Mike, who learned from me. So you’re my RPG great-great-grandchild. Cool!”
I think my dad’s family were the first in our town to have a TV (I wasn’t around then, of course).
My family was probably one of the first in my school to have a home computer–a TRS-80, in around '76 or ‘77 (my dad’s best friend was the local Radio Shack owner). It even had “the Source” (an early ancestor of Compuserve), which came with a free hour of internet time. After we used that up, though, internet usage was severely rationed because it cost $9.95 an hour. We subscribed to CLOAD magazine, which was delivered on cassette tapes and contained programs for the TRS-80. I was a big ol’ nerd. 