Well, technically, I was a part-owner of a TRS-80 Model 1 in 1979. But the Timex/Sinclair TS1000 was the first computer I ever owned outright.

I still have this thing, in its box and packing, with a 16K expansion module ($50.00) that I had to wedge in with a matchbook to keep my larger programs from glitching out. Hooked up to a black-and-white TV, with a cassette recorder for storage (and later, a 300 baud modem!), this little beauty was a real adventure back in 1981. The membrane keyboard took some getting used to, but once you were in the zone you could program almost anything the BASIC language could handle, from 1K chess games to 16-cell spreadsheets.

We just moved, and the packing process was often halted by a find like this among my things. I don’t know what I’m preserving it for, really; I would never sell it to a collector, and the box is getting pretty scuffed. So I think I’m going to take it out and leave it set up, just like the old days, and sit down at it whenever I need to remember what a thrill this whole computer thing really used to be.

Want a real trip down memory lane? Check out the kits at this place…