Monday, April 20, 2009

The Gift That Started It All...


I'm sure I've spoken of this on more than one occasion to more than one person. But why not say it again.

Back in 1980 something, my parents brought home a Commodore Vic 20 computer. It was just a keyboard with a wire that hooked up to the TV.

We had a tape recorder that hooked up to it to "save" files to (that sounded quite interesting when played on the stereo!)

But when it was on, it was a wonderful learning opportunity for a 12 year old boy.

I learned how to make it display words on the screen. Then I learned how to animate the words. Then I used ASCII characters to draw pictures on the screen. I also had the idea to write a program that would carry on a conversation with the user. (I still haven't written that one yet!)

But this one little gift for our family catapulted me into a love and career for the rest of my life! I wasn't given a fish...I was given a fishing pole and a tackle box.

Thank you, Mom and Dad! I'm eternally grateful for the future you gave me in that one gift.

No comments: