Computer At Home (Part 3 of 3)

In the days that followed, Dad brought home all sorts of other gadgets for the computer. He had a card reader that could read and input information from IBM cards. He also brought home another console just the same size as the first one, but it had no lights or switches. Dad said it was a “memory.” Many times he worked late into the night on his programs. Since I slept in the basement, I heard the machine-gun sound of the teletype as I went to sleep. I never knew how late Dad stayed up. Of course, the programs Dad worked on were only interesting to him. Most people couldn’t appreciate them until a few years later when he had everything in place to run the FM station automatically by computer. Then people really appreciated them. But Dad always had the burning desire to show off his toys to other people. For this reason he had games on the computer to show what it could do.

He was always bringing neighbors or relatives down the basement to show them the computer. He had a program that simulated a moon landing, for instance. He even had a program that played music generated by the computer. Those things were impressive to laymen.
Many times Dad would be talking to the adults while the children played with a pile of confetti that the teletype had made from paper tape. As Dad was demonstrating something on the computer, he often commented about it. “This machine uses the latest electronics technology. Four years ago, a computer this powerful would have filled this room.” (It was a big room.)
Someone always asked, “How much would this cost?”
Dad replied with pride, “Sixteen thousand dollars!”
Everybody would get wide eyes. Then he’d comment, “That’s as much as we paid for this house!”

It seems that now days, hardly a home in America is without a computer. But back in 1967, what other urban American home had one? It gives me great pride to answer, “Probably not very many – but mine did.”