November 14, 2012

New computer for an old customer

The salesman was skinny, with curly hair that hung into his eyes. He seemed awfully young, but he did a great job answering my questions. I'd already gone online to figure out which laptop I wanted so it didn't take long to choose.

"We have one in stock," he said. "Someone will bring it right out."

We chatted we waited. He seemed eager to reveal his wealth of computer experience. "I've only been working here for a few months," he said. "But I've been using Mac computers for years."

"My first computer was the Mac Classic," I told him. I saw no flash of recognition in his eyes.

"I bought it in 1991," I added.

 He flashed a shy grin. "I wasn't even born yet."

6 comments:

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

My first computer was a Mac Classic, too. I brought it with me when I moved to Latvia in 1993. It seemed as portable to me then as a laptop does now!

(And I was 20 in 1991.)

Jane Ellen+ said...

Our first computer was a Mac, too. The first one, in 1984-- used to help my husband earn his Master's.

In the snow, up hill, both ways.

Donna's chitchat said...

1991-my Mac Classic has a travel bag that you popped it into, zipped it up and slung over your shoulder so you could take your work home with you! That WAS my laptop...

Anonymous said...

1984... Apple Iic... took me through to 1992 completion of the BA. Still have that machine... still runs....
1994, Mac 6100 -- it wasn't beautiful, but the interface was amazing, and reliable, and connections to printers were also reliable. (The issue of reliability was learned at a heavy price when we purchased a PC clone for $400 in 1992 -- never made that mistake again).
Since then, we've each had a few laptops, some of which we still run (as servers for printers on our LAN)... And last week, the new Mini survived a whole coffee that was poured onto it.
Again.... 28 years of solid reliability. One can barely force me to sue the Toshiba laptop in my office on campus. Ugh.
Now Boy Child is in chef school, and has his first computer for school/professional use, and yup, it's a Mac.

Anonymous said...

1984... Apple Iic... took me through to 1992 completion of the BA. Still have that machine... still runs....
1994, Mac 6100 -- it wasn't beautiful, but the interface was amazing, and reliable, and connections to printers were also reliable. (The issue of reliability was learned at a heavy price when we purchased a PC clone for $400 in 1992 -- never made that mistake again).
Since then, we've each had a few laptops, some of which we still run (as servers for printers on our LAN)... And last week, the new Mini survived a whole coffee that was poured onto it.
Again.... 28 years of solid reliability. One can barely force me to sue the Toshiba laptop in my office on campus. Ugh.
Now Boy Child is in chef school, and has his first computer for school/professional use, and yup, it's a Mac.

Jodie said...

That's amazing. Computer geeks who weren't even born in 1991. How can they even appreciate what has happened. I remember how awesome ham radios were. With them you could actually talk to someone on the other side of the world without waiting hours for the international operator to connect you. A computer was a mystical machine with lots of blinking lights that ate computer punch cards and spit out answers to math problems. I thought I died and went to heaven the first time I used a spell checker. Hallelujah, praise the Lord!