My First Computer

My family switched from a family that did not own a computer to one that did in the summer of 1996. Our first computer was a Gateway 2000 P5-133. I believe we ordered a refurbished one and it still was probably around $1700. Of course, that includes a giant CRT monitor and the separate speakers. The tower looked like this:

The 133 stood for a 133 MHz processor. The hard drive was 1.6 GB. 

(For reference, the work computer I'm using to type this is from 2011 and it has a 2.4 GHz processor and a 750 GB hard drive.)

Here's a press release announcing it in 1995:

We got it right before my 8th grade year. I was 12, about to turn 13. So in 1996, I had the internet. I connected to it via America Online. We had a 28.8k modem. Most of the time on the computer you were not connected to the internet. When you wanted to connect, it sounded like this:

We had a limited plan. Something like 10 hours a month. It didn't always connect. Sometimes you would hear the dialing, the high pitches, the ba na ba na, the static and that would be it. No internet.

Specifically at our house, the computer was in the guest bedroom. We discovered that leaving the modem plugged into the wall at all times killed our phone signal even when we weren't connected online. So when I wanted to connect, I stretched over the guest bed, inserted the wire into the jack, then dived back to the computer to try and connect before the signal was lost. Pictures would take a few minutes to load. I remember trying to go to mtv.com in high school and it just failed. I used Napster in 2000 and I remember looking for the smallest bitrate (worst quality) because it meant that a song could download in 2 or 3 hours instead of 4 or 6.

The computer operated using Windows 95. It came with games. I played a lot of Microsoft Golf 2.0.



I also learned how to find the audio wav files and, using Sound Recorder, learned how to edit sound clips together.

There was Hover! (sic)




There was Encarta MindMaze.



And then there was this other program. I couldn't really remember it. It seemed like sort of a clubhouse. But also maybe a welcome screen? I remembered there were animals. Earlier today I googled a bunch of things and couldn't find anyone talking about it. I gave up.

And then an hour later I googled Gateway 2000 clippy.

And there it was.

Microsoft Bob.





And it didn't have Microsoft Word. I remember writing school papers–as well as X-Files fan fiction–in Microsoft Publisher.




Obviously, that computer was primitive and by today's standards it's pretty laughable in all regards. And yet, I learned so many skills. By being limited, it forced me to be creative. It got me through 5 years of school (8th grade + high school) and in many ways influenced who I am today.