When the Macintosh was released to major fanfare, I didn't pay it much mind. I figured it was the same old Apple computer in a new package. But one day I was in a computer store and I saw one in action. It was the first time I'd seen the Graphical User Interface (GUI), with the mouse, the windows, and the pull-down menus. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was absolutely transfixed.

Needless to say, my opinion of Apple computers changed from that day on. Beyond the point-and-click interface, I loved the word processor that let you change fonts and font sizes, and could stretch and compress the text so as to make justified columns. I also fell in love with the paint program. It is ridiculously primitive by today's standards, but at the time it was awe inspiring.

I got to play with Macintosh computers from time to time, but it was not until after I was out of college that I finally bought one. It was one of the original 128K RAM units, although it did have an additional external floppy drive. Without that it would have been entirely unusable. I'm sure I paid a lot more for the unit than it was worth, but it was fabulous to have it in my very own home to play with whenever I wanted.