Pamela's Computer Room

isn't really a room at all.  Well, it is a room, the dining room which is an extension of the kitchen and opens directly into the living room.  Our house has a bedroom which is suppose to be my computer room.  But who wants to be shut away in a room all by herself?  The kitchen-dining room is the hub of the house.

Our First Computer

Our first computer was an AppleII+ that we purchased from an Anchorage computer store in the spring of 1982.  We were excited to have a computer since our son had one in his second-grade classroom. Keith was working in Anchorage as the superintendent on the Beluga 138 KVA line to Anchorage.  Todd and Curtis were in school all day, and I had a lot of time on my hands.  When we saw an ad in the paper for an Apple II complete computer system (computer, monitor, game controls, 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, and programs) on sale, we rushed right down to the store.

I asked the salesman, "What languages can I learn on it?"

He said, "You can learn Pascal, Fortran, and Cobol among others."

I looked at him with a puzzled expression, and said, "I meant German, Spanish, and English." Then I asked, "Can I learn to program on it?"

"Sure," he grinned, "You'll be programming in a week."  I was picturing making my own programs to do our taxes and keep track of our check book.

When we got it back to our apartment, we had to assemble it.  After we had all the pieces in place, we plugged it in. Nothing happened. So I put the machine on my lap while Keith drove me back to the store. The salesman there adjusted whatever was wrong, and we took it back home. 

Learning to Program

After the boys were safely at school the next day, I sat down to program the computer.  I had no background whatsoever in programming, but the salesman had said, "a week", and I took him at his word.

The computer came with a tutorial to learn to program in Applesoft Basic.  So I diligently followed the instructions and typed in the basic code.  When I would get overwhelmed, I would take a break and play Space Invaders.

After a week of concentrated effort, I was finally programming something.  I had successfully made a ball bounce around the screen.  It would hit the edge of the screen and then ricochet off into another edge to bounce again.  This bouncing activity was not controllable by the keyboard or the joystick.  I felt downhearted that I couldn't make anything useful happen.

After a year of studying tutorials and typing in examples from computer magazines, I finally was able to create a checkbook program.  Basically, it was a list of my checks and the amounts, and I used a ( r = r + 1 ) command to make it add up the amounts.  Then the next year, I elaborated on that program to make a form that would calculate our taxes.

By that time, we had moved out of Anchorage, and Keith was working on a job in Connecticut.  We were staying with my parents in Indiana because Keith couldn't find a place that would allow children.  The boys were doing homeschooling, and I learned more about the computer.

The next spring, the Tanana Valley Community College was giving a class on Appleworks.  I spent the weekend learning about spreadsheets.  Appleworks was so much superior than anything that I had created that I was an immediate convert to the program.

Eventually the 48K RAM. wasn't enough to hold all the information that I was creating on my spreadsheets.  So we upgraded to an Apple IIe to have the 128K of RAM.

When Todd was in the fifth grade, we promised him his own computer if he got all As on his report card.  When he accomplished this goal, we bought him an Apple IIc.  It was more portable than our other computer so we took it with us when we traveled to Hawaii during the winter of 1987-88.  Keith was working on a new transmission line from Hilo to Kona.

Goodbye Apple, Hello PC

Curtis inherited the Apple II+ when the boys chipped in and bought me a new Apple IIgs.  I still have it in my study.  Curtis wore the Apple out, so he bought himself an IBM desktop computer.  When he went to college, he bought himself a Gateway laptop.  Todd also converted to PCs and has had several different computers since his Apple IIc.

In 1994, Keith bought a new Epson computer system, yep a PC, and we haven't owned a new Apple computer since.  I didn't want to learn a new operating system with the Macintosh.  I was a loyal Apple user, and I was disappointed that the company didn't support the line anymore.  The Epson still works and is sitting right next to the custom built computer that I own now.  Last October, Keith bought me a brand new Dell laptop for our 37th wedding anniversary.

...and I never did learn to speak another language...