The Family's First Computer

I’ve been reading Steve Wozniak’s autiobiography, iWoz, learning about the birth of Apple Computer and its evolution to Apple I and Apple II. Made me think about how eager I was to get home from camp in 1980 because I knew we had gotten a new computer, an Apple ][+. Reading iWoz, I realized my dad got into the personal computer thing early. All these years later, he still isn’t a whiz with computers and relies on his children and our spouses to fix his computer, hardware and network.
So I asked Mom why he bought a computer as early as he did. First, she thought I asked why an Apple not the TRS-80. She wrote, “At that time, it was mostly Apple or Radio Shack’s TRS-80 for at-home personal computers. Apple was the most popular and supposed to be user-friendly (which we certainly needed, since we knew nothing and you were young.) We looked, drove around to get the best deal (they were so expensive) and finally bought that one in Arlington, hoping it would work for wht we needed (wanted.).”
“Why did Dad get a computer so early in the game?”
Mom said, “He wanted you to be computer savvy – he knew it was the big thing coming and figured we’d use it, but mostly you’d get into the computer age and it would be a great communication tool for you. He was right!”
Boy, was he right. Actually, I didn’t use it for communication until about five or six years later when we got a 300 baud modem. Even when we installed the modem, I didn’t use it much right away. My generation didn’t grow up with computers — a handful did. We might’ve had computer labs in school that we could use once a week or so, but not something generally found in the home.
Too bad we didn’t invest in Apple stock!