This is the 50th anniversary of Apple Computer, and the sites you’d expect are publishing their love letters to Apple’s early products, including the Apple ][.
As I was reading these articles and listening to a related podcast yesterday, walking down the proverbial memory lane, I was struck by how lucky I was to have parents who supported and encouraged my love of computing back then. Buying those computers for me and feeding my curiosity and interest was a commitment. We weren’t poor, but I understand now, much better than I did then, that it wasn’t easy for them to make big purchases like those. It’s no exaggeration to say that it was truly something that shaped the course of my life and career, and I appreciate not only their financial sacrifice, but them enabling something that was pretty foreign and new at the time.
You have to remember that, in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was no internet, and it was uncommon to have a computer in one’s home, let alone one’s bedroom. We didn’t even have cable TV, which was also relatively uncommon at the time, in our house. Computers were portrayed as the domain of super nerds, or science fiction—WarGames was an example of the way the media commonly portrayed them in the zeitgeist. As the Apple ][ article I linked to earlier asserts, it absolutely was a thing back then for parents to want their kids to “learn computers”, but I had many friends whose parents weren’t so open to that (or able to make that purchase), and it was really something special to grow up with those resources and encouragement.
So, thank you Mom and Dad. ❤️