What stories do you have about getting your hands on some gadget before they were widely available?
For me: a laser pointer and a GPS.
Way back in the very early 80’s my dad was presenting a seminar at the local university that went for a few days. While he was there they let him have one of their laser pointers to use and he brought it home for a few nights.
Holy cow was that cool. I was maybe 8 at the time and lasers were things from science fiction.
OK, it was big and a bit unweildy, had a large transformer that you had to plug into the mains power and was made of bright yellow plastic covered in warning stickers but it was a laser!. Only had it for a little while but it was tons of fun to play with (and apparently cost several hundred dollars at the time).
Go forward a few years to 1987 and it was my first encounter with a GPS, this one from the geological survey that dad brought along on a camping trip - it was work related, he was going on a survey into central Australia & needed to know how to use it. Again bright yellow, about the size of one of those 1980’ cell phones, with a folding antenna and a small LCD screen.
IIRC there were only about 9 or 10 satellites up at the time so getting a fix took a long time and it only gave lat/long (and elevation if you were very lucky) that you then had to translate to a printed map. But again, holy cow! using satellites to tell me where I was - it’s the space age!
Sure now lasers and GPS are pedestrian, but once they were the coolest thing ever for a kid who grew up on Star Wars to use.