I was playing hooky from school, which I was apt to do from time to time. I was consistently on the honor roll in class – yet never did homework and only haphazardly showed up. A combination of boredom, social awkwardness, and lack of supervision drove me to cut class and do a rather odd thing with my time – explore the city. The year was 1985 and I was 13.

Getting around Philly was an amazingly cheap thing to do for someone so young and so small. Timing your run under the turnstiles for the leaving of an El, just before its doors were to close, or blending into the flow of passengers crossing between shuttle busses and trains, or entering thru the back exit door on certain busy bus routes – it was easy. No one stops a 13 year old kid in a crowd who looks like he knows what he’s doing and casts an innocent glance when looked at. They think your parent must be somewhere.

I loved people watching and one of my haunts was Wanamaker’s on Market Street. Wanamaker’s was a very upscale department store, still is in its current incarnation as Lord & Taylor’s (the renaming is a crime I tell ya). Folks who shopped here were of a different world then mine – the pace was slower and the faces brighter – yet they did not notice me as I passed thru, while I munched on a soft pretzel with mustard.

They had opened a display on one of the upper floors for the Apple Macintosh. Ten of them arrayed in a semi circle, in a darkened atmospheric alcove. A chair invitingly in front of each. The upper floors of Wanamaker’s by day were pretty empty. Quiet. And seeing that display – well it was like I was suddenly presented with the entire Star Wars action figure collection… well close. That might be going too far.

I remember the walk to a chair and sitting down. The effort it took to be nonchalant – important if I wasn’t to raise a stir with staff and get thrown out – was very hard. It had to be only around five paces for me yet it felt like forever. I remember sitting down. I remember taking the mouse and opening up MacPaint – and I remember drawing! A couple of store hands came over to watch – one clearly said – “he seems to know what he’s doing – I think it’s OK” – and let me go. I felt empowered. I knew nothing of computers yet here I was manipulating one and folks observing asking “hey, how did you do that?”. I think I sat there for a couple hours. I recall a tutorial to familiarize yourself with the Mac that I took. I headed out when the major shopping crowd started to shuffle in.

I wouldn’t own a computer for a couple of years later – it was a Commodore 64C since the Mac was way out of reach. But it’s impact on me was undeniable.

Rafe, I hope you don’t mind me riffing off of one of another of your posts again, but I found myself in the same situation as you over the book post – there were no books that got me inspired about computers – it was the computers themselves that got me hooked.