There were two places my Mum used to know to look for me, after school, if I wasn't home at an appropriate time: the TANDY shop, and the COMPUTER AGE shop.
These two shops - the former a means of access to the TRS-80, the latter a means of access to the Apple II and Atari 800 computers - were my "second class-room", inasmuch as I learned so much in the few hours I got away with hacking there.
The TANDY salesmen were more than willing to let us kids play with their systems, but we were never allowed to use the disc drives (now I know why, finally) - whereas the COMPUTER AGE salesmen, once they noticed me furiously typing away every day after school, gave me a floppy disc to save things. This floppy disc was a constant accessory and a major source of hassle with my regular school teachers, who didn't have a clue what it was and were mostly just miffed with my obsession over it. "What is that thing and why do you carry it everywhere you go?", once teacher asked me during a break, to which my precocious answer was "its the future, lady!", earning me a visit to the headmaster for disrepect (catholic school...)
The TANDY I'd go to was in the middle of a shopping district in one of the wealthiest parts of town (Subiaco, Perth, Australia), and the COMPUTER AGE was located in the midst of all of the wealthy schools of the city (Claremont), which meant I was constantly battling with rich kids to gain access to the machines .. eventually I witnessed a wave of rich kids disappearing from the shops as they got their systems unpacked at home, but I could never afford it, so was a regular with the salesmen. One of the COMPUTER AGE guys noticed this one day, and it formed the basis of a long friendship.
I'll always remember those halcyon days, when things were really very adventurous. I'm pretty glad I never got to save much on the TRS-80's, as it gave me more motivation to study "The Apple Way", and that eventually led me to gaining access to modems and BBS's and things, which were always more fun on Apple than the TRS-80.
So its pretty nice to hear the backstory of Tandy, ultimately, as a shoelace vendor that became a digital pioneer.
These two shops - the former a means of access to the TRS-80, the latter a means of access to the Apple II and Atari 800 computers - were my "second class-room", inasmuch as I learned so much in the few hours I got away with hacking there.
The TANDY salesmen were more than willing to let us kids play with their systems, but we were never allowed to use the disc drives (now I know why, finally) - whereas the COMPUTER AGE salesmen, once they noticed me furiously typing away every day after school, gave me a floppy disc to save things. This floppy disc was a constant accessory and a major source of hassle with my regular school teachers, who didn't have a clue what it was and were mostly just miffed with my obsession over it. "What is that thing and why do you carry it everywhere you go?", once teacher asked me during a break, to which my precocious answer was "its the future, lady!", earning me a visit to the headmaster for disrepect (catholic school...)
The TANDY I'd go to was in the middle of a shopping district in one of the wealthiest parts of town (Subiaco, Perth, Australia), and the COMPUTER AGE was located in the midst of all of the wealthy schools of the city (Claremont), which meant I was constantly battling with rich kids to gain access to the machines .. eventually I witnessed a wave of rich kids disappearing from the shops as they got their systems unpacked at home, but I could never afford it, so was a regular with the salesmen. One of the COMPUTER AGE guys noticed this one day, and it formed the basis of a long friendship.
I'll always remember those halcyon days, when things were really very adventurous. I'm pretty glad I never got to save much on the TRS-80's, as it gave me more motivation to study "The Apple Way", and that eventually led me to gaining access to modems and BBS's and things, which were always more fun on Apple than the TRS-80.
So its pretty nice to hear the backstory of Tandy, ultimately, as a shoelace vendor that became a digital pioneer.