I’ve received some really great gifts over the years, but the one
that stands out in my memory as the most exciting was (and I’m exposing
myself as a huge geek here) the Apple IIe my parents bought for me and
my sister when I was in sixth grade. Up until then I had been using an
old typewriter with a sticky “e” to write my stories about ponies and
princesses; Bank Street Writer opened up a whole new world of word
processing to me. (I might have played a few games on it, too…but
they were educational!)
Of course, since then I have upgraded computers a few times, and the
old IIe was eventually donated to charity—and with it, all of my old
stories, which, in their disappearance, have become totally legendary
in my memory. But I can still remember that feeling of excitement
Christmas morning. The boxes were so big! And numerous! And it took the
entire day for us to get it set up and running! No gift I’ve yet
received as an adult could quite compare to that…although for the
record, I’m not adverse to people giving it their best shot.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.