A Commodore 64 of my own…again

Forty years ago this November, I entered the world of personal computers. I got an internship with EnTech, a small Commodore 64 software company. My job was to write press releases, especially to promote their music composition program, Studio 64. I got good at writing press releases, so they made me their public relations representative. I then wrote anything that needed to be written, including user manuals. I began the technical writing career I’m still in today.

Shortly after I started at EnTech, I realized I wanted a computer too. I discovered how useful they are. Also, I wanted the option to take work home when needed. (See, working from home isn’t a new idea.) My mom bought me a late Hanukkah present. At an after-Christmas sale, she bought me a Commodore 64, joystick, and cassette player. I plugged it into a spare black-and-white TV. As I can afford them, I added peripherals. First, I got a 1541 floppy drive. (We had to go through a few of them before we found one that was reliable.) Then, we got an Epson RX-80 dot-matrix printer. Along with the word processor PaperClip, I wrote my term papers and writing assignments for my final years of college.

From the Commodore 64, I went to the Commodore 128 shown in the photo. Then came the Amiga 500. But in 1991, after working for AST for five years, I saw the writing on the wall. I sold all my Commodore computers…