Re: You are Here! So: How did you get into Apple II Computing?

[mrsparkle@hokkaido.jp (S Robson)]

In article rubywand@swbell.net writes...
> 
>The May FAQs release has led to an email discussion about various
>lead-ins to becoming an Apple II user. So ...
>
>How did you get into Apple II computing?

Well, my first computing experience actually revolved around an Apple I.
When I was about seven, my dad brought one home for the night and hooked
it up to the kitchen TV set and I did what I could with it -- which was
not much, considering I didn't know how to program at the time.

Then dad bought a TRS-80 Model I for his business. I think I got much more
use out of it than he ever did. I learned everything there was to know
about programming in BASIC, and I'm still kind of amazed at what I got out
of that machine in the face of all the "Trash-80" talk. My grammar school
had a computer lab comprised of TRS-80s as well, so I was the big-time
nerd of the land there.

Subsequently, I moved on to junior high, where they had a number of Apple
][+'s. I also had numerous friends who owned the things, and I was quite
intrigued by the things -- especially the color graphics. Now, about this
time, my dad decided it would be a good time to get a computer for the
home. He was using an IBM PC at work, so he was intrigued by the IBM PC
Junior (the horror!), and we came THIS CLOSE to buying one. I used every
trick in the book to pursuade him to blow the extra dosh on a spiffy new
//e.

16 years later, and I still have that //e -- and still use it quite a bit.
God knows what landfill that PC Jr. would've ended up in. :-)

Seth.