My first professional writing instrument was a Tandy 1000, which I purchased in 1985. I splurged and purchased a 1000 that had two floppy drives a month after I graduated from Duke. These were the large floppies, when the disks actually flopped or bent when you picked them up and slid them into the PC.
I spent $1000 on this piece of crap. I wrote on it for ten years. I wrote dozens of books (none of which were published), dozens of stories, and perhaps two or three hundred essays. I still have this machine stuffed down in the basement along with, perhaps, a hundred floppies that are absolutely loaded with material. I'll never revisit this stuff.
I learned how to write by writing on this mono-chrome monster . . . and Becky can remember (pre-children) when I would sit in my office hole for hours every night and type away. It's miraculous, in fact, that we have two kids. According to her memory, I spent more time on the PC than I did with her. Could be . . . but look what I've accomplished: stacks of unwanted material, dozens of books that will never see the light of day, closets stuffed with gigantic piles of paper. And heck, I spend more time with her now, and she can't understand why.
Who could ask for anything more?!
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