Do You Remember Your First Time Using A Computer?
My First Computer – TRS80
This was the computer I used on occasion that my parents had. I honestly don’t remember the computer too well except that I remember having to use DOS and it seemed easier to use the typewriter vs. this new Radio Shack computer. My parents bought it used and cost about the same as a decent new computer today. I didn’t realize that until I asked about it last week. The curiosity about the computer was all started by a tweet.
@lisapatb@pibblesnheathen@janbierens@hersocialnetwrk@vanitacyril@karmaluv13 Have you seen a floppy disk most recently?
— Mayura De Silva (@MayuraDeSilva) July 24, 2012
This Tandy computer came out in the late 1970′s and were sold at Radio Shack. It was the first mass produced computer. There were over 3000 Radio Shack stores at the time selling them. The keyboard and monitor sold for around $600 according to Wikepedia. Radio shack sold over 200,000 of these computers during the products lifetime. Mostly small businesses and hobbyists had purchased them. My parents worked on updating voting lists and this was how they were able to keep the lists more up to date without pen and paper.
I do remember that the computer was a white on black display. You could not tell the difference between upper and lower case letters. I also remember typing up some papers for English class with the old Tandy. I still preferred the electric typewriter over it. It was easier to correct mistakes with the “paper” you used to erase images (before white out was invented). What was that paper called?
It is amazing to see how my parents adopted to the computer technology and at 84 and 85 still use their computers today. If I do not see an email for a day or two I know someone is not feeling well. My dad now has a laptop and uses excel to keep track of the records.
Do you remember what computer you first used and how old you were?
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About Lisa
Helping Others to Thrive Online Through Social Media, Blogging and SEO. What good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others?
20+ years experience in marketing/advertising with 3 years experience blogging, social media and SEO.
46 Responses to Do You Remember Your First Time Using A Computer?
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Interesting Lisa!
Hmm…I think it was a very ordinary one that my Dad had got using himself, but we all loved the look of it and were glued to it as kids. We weren’t allowed to operate and touch it till much later, when I started using it mainly for learning my typing and that’s the place where my typing sped picked up.
I also remember how my eyes used to get strained because of the long hours I used to spend working on the computer and my Mom coming in and scolding me for just sitting at it.
After marriage of course, we brought our own computer and now work on laptops, but this surely did make us go down memory lane. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi Harlennea, I’m sure I wasn’t allowed to use it in the beginning either. Yes, I remember that eye strain too. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I remember my first computer. It was a Commodore VIC-20, and I used it mostly to play games. The graphic was awesome at the time, but if my kids had seen it they would have laughed
I bought this computer in 1981 or 1982, I can’t remember exactly. But it was the best gift I had ever received
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I never had one of those Jens. I bet the kids would laugh at it today for sure! Thanks for sharing your experience with your first computer
Hi Lisa,
Very interesting
I was anticipating this one. Why just your mom and dad? Your son is following same theory, isn’t it? 
However I’ve never seen a radio shack though I heard of it. I’m not that much old… LOL 
Really glad to see here.
Anyway my parents doesn’t know anything about computers
Cheers…
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We always had a mac in my house. Supposedly we had a lisa. the first apple computer. I never saw it.
i actually saw a floppy drive the other day in a thrift shop.
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Yowza! That’s taking me back! Actually the first computer I ever used was an Apple. It was 1985 and I was in high school. Prior to that everything was done on typewriter and a non-electric I might add. I remember the big old floppy disks. Wow! Those were strange!
It was a computer programming class and I remember a lot of DOS prompts and commands and making pictures. Other than that, not much. It was another couple years before I touched a computer again. That was one of my jobs I had. I self taught myself everything and never looked back.
Great post Lisa!
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My first computer was a Leading Edge, which was not cutting edge. It used the Dos operating system and had yellow characters, if I remember correctly. Before the home computer was mass produced, at work, I used a Selectric typewriter then a Wang. Remember the Wang? I remember the old floppy disks, too. It’s amazing how much technology had advanced since the dinosaur days of Dos.
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My last memory of using a computer is in the 90s (don’t exactly remember much about it, because I was a kid). It was a black and white computer (I remember my parents created an email for me) that ran on Windows (we have always been Windows users
).
Interesting post, Lisa
Nice post Lisa. And I’m sure i didn’t see that much old computer in my life! (I’m too young for it
). And my first computer is a P3 computer and father bought it for me and my sister. 
My father was familiar with computers than me those days. But now I familiar with them than him 
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So did you grow up with one Chathu? Did you ever use a typewriter?
Hi Lisa,
I remember my first computer. I was so excited to get it. It was the first time I used my credit card. I was 21 years old. I think it was a compaq. I could not believe that I could have email at home. So sad to admit that I got it because my friends were using this new email/chat, I would to say it was AOL but not sure to find “love”. One of my friend had just met a guy and was getting married. I was desperate to find love so I made the plunge and purchased a computer. I was too paranoid to date online but I am happy that it sparked my interest in computers.
Hi Cynthia, so you didn’t have access to one growing up? Interesting to see how everyone started at different times in their lives with computers. I remember those chats on AOL. I believe it was the first type of chat on the internet.
Hi Lisa,
I did not have access to one growing up. I lived in Mississippi with my grandparents until I was 12 years old. We did even have a phone in our house until I was 7 or 8 years old or a bathroom believe it or not. Then I moved to Texas to live with my mother, we were lucky to have a place to live and television. My mother used one at work but it was not something that she could afford to buy.
Cynthia
I could not imagine without a bathroom Cynthia. Wow.
Hi Lisa,
As I look at my life now, I can not imagine that I came from such a meager environment. It does make me really appreciate everything that I have accomplished from being the first to graduate high school and college to experience life as I do now. I still have relatives that don’t own computers and financially they don’t see that as something that can be put in the budget.
Hi Lisa, you will be amazed I bet; but I will be honest, the first time I was ever on a computer besides that dreadful typing class I was 21 years old. I played command and conquer which was the most amazing pc game ever. It’s actually when I also meet my wife as it was her computer. She would wake up for class in the morning and I would still be awake playing the game. I did that for about 2 or 3 months I enjoyed it a lot, then I stopped went to college, graduated from business administration marketing and now as you know I own blog Engage and work on the pc full time. I do not play games any longer.
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Wow, I am Brian. Did you use a typewriter or computer in that class? That’s funny how much you played the games online.
Hi Lisa:
The summer before my senior year in high school involved my working for the local borough doing everything from cutting weeds with a sickle to picking up garbage running with the borough garbage truck.
Every paycheck involved a trip to the nearest Radio Shack (about 30 minutes or so away) to give my entire paycheck towards a Radio Shack TRS 80 Model I. By the end of the summer, I was able to bring it home.
Those were the days of using a cassette player to save and load applications; and it was common for it to take 30 minutes just to save or load one application.
Yes, those were interesting days.
Thank you.
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Imagine we had patience to wait 30 minutes then Peter? I don’t think our kids would wait that long for anything
The first computer I used was a VTDX80 and a Star (I don’t remember the type). Privately I owned a Commodore 64 with cassette tape drive. My first Personal Computer was a 4.17 MegaHertz XT with DOS 3.00, PCTools 2.0 and Word Perfect 4.1. Two five and a quarter inch floppy drive (remember the sound they made?).
Every time I had to spell check a WordPerfect document I had to change floppies. And another change of floppies to actually ave the file. 360Kb floppies, formatted one sided. You could store 720Kb on them, but for that you had to cut a little notch away on the floppy housing. And format the disk double sided.
Gawd, I’m sure glad we’re living NOW!
I’m with you on that Jan, imagine how long it would take to do what we do now? You used DOS too? I didn’t like that program.
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My first computer was a compaq computer that lasted a few months. It was a laptop I got it as a graduation present from high school. It broke down on me a lot that’s probably why I remember it so much.
Only a few months Kita? I thought things were made better years ago.
That is one thing that I remember about my Compaq as well that it was down more that it was up.
Lisa: This definitely brought a smile to my face…as did reading the comments! I learned to type on an electric typewriter (not a computer) & used “correction sheets” (little velum sheets covered on one side with white powder) to fix mistakes. Then, came the magic of “correction tape” that loaded into the typewriter just like the ink ribbon did & allowed you to correct mistakes without having to insert a correction sheet. Finally…the holy grail of inventions was “white-out” — ahhhh yes! Those were the days! Thanks for reminding me just how far we’ve come & how truly lucky we are!
Thanks Lynn, was trying to remember that name for the “Correction Tape”. They do have some now on spools. Not sure who uses it though. White out, that was a saviour in it’s time.
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Hi Lisa
My first computer was a Spectrum 48k. The rubber keys were annoying, especially as one or two of them didn’t work particularly well. But it was still fun 
Rubber keys Ben? I have never used those. They do sound annoying
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Yes, back in 1995 actually. I wish like heck I got into sooner. I used computers in high school, but it was mostly school stuff and that is about it. I did no shopping online and still read the newspaper for the latest news. When I see old biographies on TV about Microsoft or Apple, I can’t believe we used stuff like that. Big bulky and ugly. Now I bet 20 yrs from now, we will be saying the same about the stuff we are using now.
Hi Sonia, I bet you are right, we’ll probably have computers on our wrists or something. Do you still read the newspapers today?
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I remember being excited about computer class in elementary school. We used apples and we played a game where we had to move the turtle, who left a line where he walked, aroud the screan using the function and shift keys along with letters. I loved it.
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My first computer experience was when I was nine years old. My parents had just purchased a Gateway computer and I remember being more excited about the “cow spotted box” than I was the computer.
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Hi Terri, how did you like the Gateway? I remember they were the ones to have their own stores. Whatever happended to them?
I think I used an IBM! It was not user friendly!
Hi Candice, no IBM was not user friendly. Too complicated for most.
Hi Lisa,
I started computer by playing online games. During the time I was start using computer, window vista was my first used. And I was really addicting to online games before, after about 3-4 yrs of gaming, I still found a big improvement on it. However, now that I thought of it, if I took those 3-4 yrs to study hard then I would now have a bigger improvement.
Thanks, I love old memory – Ferb
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You are welcome. I never got into the games on computers. Solitaire for a while, that was it
I started using computer when I was just 8 years old by playing sega games which was the popular game of that time.
The first computer which I used was P2. My parents bought that for me as a gift because I got the first position in 6th class exams
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Hi Ehsan, I haven’t heard Sega in quite some time. Funny how things fade away quickly. Thanks for coming by and commenting.
This post made me smile! I remember using a Vydec … basically a typewriter the size of a Buick … and I was rather “late” to PC/computers. My first was a used archaic Toshiba laptop, followed up (when it broke in 2 weeks) with Pentium II Compaq with 512MB of “faster” RAM-bus .. an innovation at the time. I remember my GF at the time showing me how to send my FIRST email in Rancho Mirage Library … from hotmail (snort!).
I actually bought the PC as a peripheral to my Palm Pilot ~ I had all intentions of having the Palm be the computer, but needed a way to load programs on it. Little did I know that within 3 months I’d be learning CSS, beta testing software and participating in forums … I “took off” in a short period of time. Then came digital cameras and a 2 year learning curve … and I loved every minute of it.
Hi Paul, welcome to my blog. Never heard of Vydec. First email – LOL
You sure did learn a lot in a short time. Thanks for sharing your story Paul.
Hey Lisa, my first computer which I used was an old Toshiba laptop and I remember I first used to play Solitaire. I was totally unaware about the world of Internet then. I am glad that I am a blogger today and an Internet addict as well.
Hi Shiwangi, I loved playing solitaire too before I got involved in online stores and blogs. These are more fun
Thanks Lisa for shearing your great experience for the first time of using computer. I remembered that I used first time intel pentium II machine. When I was the student of class 8. At that time we used the windows 95 OS. It’s a great experience for me. At that time I was very much interested of painting in the paint. I had very little knowledge of computer. Now I’m completed my graduation on the computer. Thanks again Lisa.
Your are welcome Kuladip – thanks for sharing your story too