Computer At Home (Part 2 of 3)

Later that night, just as we were getting ready for bed, Dad told us to come down the basement. Vera and I were the only ones still up, so we hurried downstairs. The computer was on. The lights flashed on and off and it hummed and whizzed. The teletype was busily printing something out. It sounded like a toy machine gun. Dad said, “Want to see it work?”
My sister Vera and I nodded, yes. “First, we need to load in the program,” Dad said. “Computers are dumb unless we tell them what to do.”
Dad removed a little strip of paper tape from an envelope. He placed it in a little contraption of the side of the teletype. He matched the holes in the tape with some little metal fingers on the machine. Then he pushed a button and the tape started to advance through the machine. In a few seconds it was done.
Dad pushed a few more buttons and then the teletype printed, “What is your name?”
Dad had me type in my name. I hunted for the right keys to plunk out my name: ‘Billy.’
The computer then asked, “Repeated how many times?”
Dad told me to type one hundred.
I poked out,`l00.’
In a flash, the teletype started to type out my name--one hundred times. I was impressed.