Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Cusp: The Mag Tape

I had my little group of friends from around the neighborhood that I played with. There was 'nes who was sort of the leader -- being bigger and older and able to eat an entire hostess apple pie in one bite. There was Mike who was short and scrappy. There was Weldon who lived around the corner. There were others, but their memory escapes me at the moment.

So we had built a space ship in Mike's basement -- consisting of a few pieces of plywood formed into a makeshift clubhouse and decorated with whatever switches and knobs and other spaceshippy things we could find. We were always on the lookout for things to add to the ship to add interest. I don't remember a lot of details about the ship or our imaginary adventures, alas. I do remember having a lot of fun.

One day, Nes -- in probably what was his crowning moment of utter coolness -- brought a computer tape to put on the wall of the space ship. You know the type. Technically, it was probably a standard 1600cpi, 10" magtape such as was the epitome of the hollywood computer up until probably at least the mid 80's. As such, it was the crowning addition to our fantasies.

So, of course, we had to know where he got it. "I'm taking a computer class," he announced. Well, that was just TOO cool. He told us all about it -- the School for Business and Commerce was a half-day program available to juniors and seniors and, among other things, offered a course in computer programming. Right then and there, I made up my mind that I too would join the ranks of computer elite.

I did sign up for that class. I showed up the first day imagining that I would be designing matter transporters and such. As it turns out, computers were nothing like I imagined them to be. Nonetheless, I was hooked. I ended up going to the School for Business and Commerce my whole last two years of high school, adding a teaching assistant position at my regular high school, followed by a couple of years at City College and the rest, as they say, is history.

That day that Nes brought home a mag tape was definitely a pivotal point in my life.

Related Links Wikipedia: Magnetic Tape

[ Posted: 09:00 | home | print ]

Wow. A spaceship, eh? When I was little we used to have this particular bush in a nearby park that me and my friends believed was a sort of transporter/portal to other worlds, times etc. Bored? Just hop in, close your eyes, think about where you want to go, then hop back out again and boom! There you were. We had such a great time back then, my best friends and I. ...Except that one time it went wrong and we ended up being chased by Jack The Ripper and Bigfoot simultaniously - THAT was no fun, but, y'know, usually we did. Caught old Ripper and triumphantly handed him over to the authorities though. Yup. Right old Scooby Gang we were...

Posted by Alice