Somebody Get This Guy A Shirt

 

Me at a PET computer, about age 10

In the picture above, I am posing at the computer, and not doing anything useful. This is the Commodore PET computer that lived on a desk in our dining room, then later on a desk in the basement. It had a cassette drive for storage, and later models accepted floppy disks. 

Dad wrote some programs on the PET in BASIC, and computer magazines back in that time had long code listings that you could type into your own computer at home, which he also did. I learned a little BASIC on the PET using a book Dad wrote, but didn't get very good at it until I took a programming class in high school. 

Dad had at least one more later version of the PET, one that had a larger keyboard and a cassette drive that was plugged into the back. This led to more computers in the house, such as a Tandy 1000, an IBM PC clone first sold in 1984. That computer followed me to college and I used it until about 1992. My printer in college was a Gorilla Banana dot-matrix model. 

What's on the Screen?

Dad had a little sign up on the wall above the computer, a shorter version of which I believe is showing on the screen in the picture above. It was a pseudo-German warning to those who might fiddle with the computer instead of taking it seriously. This whimsical prose was easy to find online - it has been enshrined on the "Blinkenlights" Wikipedia page. 

ACHTUNG!

ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENSPEEPERS!

DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN.

IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.

ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.