Jurassic Mac

The first piece of technology I can remember having a great affection for may have perhaps had the most lasting effect on me. 


...It didn’t work.


When I was four or five years old (circa 1990) I went to a babysitter who had two children that were my friends, Michael and Kristen, both of who always had the coolest toys (my dream was the life-size Barbie Jeep/GI Joe Jeep, they each had one).   One day, a computer was sitting in Michael’s room and it looked like this.

At this point, home computers were very off limits most of the time to kids our age.  So, when this was placed in his room and we had free reign – we didn’t even want it to work.  Well, Michael did. I was relieved it didn’t, because we could play how we wanted. 

My imaginary games revolved entirely around this computer.  I was always an archaeologist doing research for Jurassic Park, furiously “typing” on the keyboard as though my pounding keys at random would change the world of modern dinosaurs.

At this point, I feel I had what could have become a very open, exciting relationship with technology – perhaps if I had soon encountered some interesting thing that worked.