I had one as a kid, one of the more interesting machines I hauled out of the local waste disposal skips in town. I would have lugged it and it's monitor a mile - the length of the station car park, up the grassey bank to the back of Bluehatch, all through that estate and onto the home stretch, the main road my parents house was on. Another 100 meters and Id leave it on the pavement in front of our front garden hedge - down the drive, check my dad was at the far end of our long garden, and then double back to pick up my latest find - seek out a tight, snug spot tucked back between the top shed and the tall hedge to it's side. Safe.
That was my routine for getting 'finds' from where-ever, past my mum and on into my bedroom. 'Finds' could be abandoned computer systems, old CRT TVs from the 70's and 80's (the older colour ones were the best!) late 60' - 70s combo Hifi's Oscilloscopes, test equipment etc. The most difficult part was the journey from shed to bedroom. It required planning and timing. I would have to sacrifice something already in my room, which was littered with circuit boards, bare CRTs face down, stacked to the left of mt bed. You could see little of the carpet and never open my wardrobes without moving piles of electronics or TVs. Most my cupboards were stuffed full of PCBs, hard drives, floppy drives, controllers and of course my huge collection of de soldered components. I had no knowledge or access to those plastic pull-out drawers. Everything was in biscuit tins, zip-lock bags, spice pots - separated by component type but not value. 100s of resistors all in one large Fingers tin. I'd search through the lot desperately searching for the correct values for whatever circuit i was attempting to build. Transistors, power transistors, ceramic caps, mylar film, tantalums, those pretty color striped ones, valves, transformers, fly back transformers - I had it all and kept much of it in to adulthood. Oh, and that smell - wonderful! ...
That was my routine for getting 'finds' from where-ever, past my mum and on into my bedroom. 'Finds' could be abandoned computer systems, old CRT TVs from the 70's and 80's (the older colour ones were the best!) late 60' - 70s combo Hifi's Oscilloscopes, test equipment etc. The most difficult part was the journey from shed to bedroom. It required planning and timing. I would have to sacrifice something already in my room, which was littered with circuit boards, bare CRTs face down, stacked to the left of mt bed. You could see little of the carpet and never open my wardrobes without moving piles of electronics or TVs. Most my cupboards were stuffed full of PCBs, hard drives, floppy drives, controllers and of course my huge collection of de soldered components. I had no knowledge or access to those plastic pull-out drawers. Everything was in biscuit tins, zip-lock bags, spice pots - separated by component type but not value. 100s of resistors all in one large Fingers tin. I'd search through the lot desperately searching for the correct values for whatever circuit i was attempting to build. Transistors, power transistors, ceramic caps, mylar film, tantalums, those pretty color striped ones, valves, transformers, fly back transformers - I had it all and kept much of it in to adulthood. Oh, and that smell - wonderful! ...