Re: Some thoughts on collecting

["Bryan Villados" <news002@macgeek.org>]

I feel your pain... I recently went to an elementary school that was jam
packed with Apple equipment. I could only take one car load, and I had to
leave the rest behind. I took some photos of the temporary storage facility
that sat on their school lawn:

http://www.macgeek.org/temp/DSC00013.JPG
http://www.macgeek.org/temp/DSC00015.JPG
http://www.macgeek.org/temp/DSC00016.JPG
http://www.macgeek.org/temp/DSC00017.JPG
http://www.macgeek.org/temp/DSC00019.JPG
http://www.macgeek.org/temp/DSC00020.JPG

--- Bryan

"Ernest" <ernestls@attbi.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:yoiz9.36374$Dc4.147710@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net...
> Sometimes, collecting old computers can be kind of depressing. Today, a
nice
> man, a teacher from a local school brought over several large boxes of old
> Apple II software and manuals. There wasn't anything particularly
> "collectable" in the lot, other than a set of Mastery Development network
> setup disks.
>
> The part that was depressing for me was seeing how neatly, and carefully
> arranged and sorted it all was. This was obviously a school with a
struggling
> budget, and I could clearly see how much pride they took in their
> hand-me-down software and manuals. Much of it was even sorted by class and
> grade, with a student's name on each 5.25" disk. I guess that it was their
> work for that year -mostly 2nd-4th grades.
>
> I don't know exactly why sorting through this stuff depressed me. Maybe it
> was because I could see that they once cared very much about this stuff,
and
> now it was being thrown out like so much rubbish.
>
> Next week, I get to go and pick through their old hardware -including
their
> Mastery Development Network systems. I'm sure that I'll find some nice
things
> but it will probably hit me the same way. They were still using their
Apple
> IIe's on this network up until a year or so ago, when the license expired.
>
> It's lately begun to get to me. Each of these old systems, and bits of
junk
> have their previous owner's energy (for lack of a better word) all over
them.
> I find disks with old letters and diaries on them, or computers with
stickers
> that some teenage kid stuck on them. I take them apart, and clean them up.
I
> effectively sterilize them of any sign of previous usage. I never thought
> about it before but I've started to lately and it sort of bums me out a
> little. Who were these people? What are they doing now? Did Sue finally
marry
> Bill? Has Jack gone on to college? It's like seeing the ghosts of previous
> users.
>
> I should also say, though that most of the time, the history of these old
> computers fascinates me. I only collect clones now, and I know that there
> can't be more than a handful of certain ones left out there. I enjoy that
> part of it -knowing that at least the systems that I have will not be
going
> to the land fill any time soon.
>
> E.
>
> --
> Web Page: http://12.228.5.66
>
>