What was your first memory of being in awe watching a computer?

[Rick Ethridge]

Actually for me it was a book about computers that drew me to them. I had been using the TI-59 programmable calculator and I ran across this book back in 1978 -

It blew me away how you could do so much more, especially manipulating text like MID$, RIGHT$, etc. on a computer compared to the programmable calcs.

When I got to the part in the book that explained arrays I was totally hooked and just had to have a computer.

I bought a Radio Shack Model 1, like this one, and I was in a whole new world.

I'd been interested in computers since 1969 but wasn't sharp enough to make the mainframe terminal. What caught my attention was the TRS-80 Model I in 1979. I liked it so much I put it on lay-away. I still have an almost fully tricked-out one.

 

[curtis]

Yeah, the TRS-80 was my first,"WOW!!!" computer.

I was working for Radio Shack at the time and the largest store in my city, Odessa, got one in. They had a kid who was knew BASIC and he started pounding on the keyboard and got some sort of program running and we were all just flabbergasted! Don't remember what the program was, but it just blew us away.

After we finally got one in my store, I had a doctor friend who would buy anything and everything we could get for him. He was actually running his office on the stupid thing. Had 8-9 floppy drives all daisy chained for his storage. Made a ton of money off him.