OK, Computer

Before I accumulated my various Apple devices, I had The Commodore 64.

64 kilobytes of computer memory. Hard to imagine now that some cameras have a thousand times that in one image!

It was well-used, with the boys and me using it to play games, write programs, and we even had a dial-up modem for access to local usenets.

And then one day it was not used.

It languished in the basement, forgotten for 30 years.

I dug it out the other day, part of spring house-keeping, and hooked it up to a modern flat-screen TV, and fired it up.

It worked perfectly. I played some of the old games, they were just as cheesy as I remembered them.

The neatest part of the games were the soundtracks, evidently there was a special sound chip in these that is highly sought-after.

I put it on Craigslist and sold it in one day, to a middle-aged enthusiast who actually attends swap meets for these and other vintage computers. I have a feeling that he might part out the various components.

Looking back, I think that this was one element of my life I could have skipped, although the boys needed it to fit into their changing world.

I still play one computer game now—on my iPad—a Scrabble-like game called Classic Words. It can be wild; I’ve scored over 500 several times and once even hit 714!

I rationalize its use by thinking that it keeps my brain nimble.