My First Mac

Mac Happiness

Michael A. Stanhope

Michael got hooked on Macs in high school and still loves using them.

First off, I do not endorse any specific computer. I use them for what they are, all kinds, Macs, Apple II, even the dreaded Wintel machines (shudder!) . . . just for computing.

It was a funny day, the day I got my first Mac. After using Mac SE's in high school in 1993 to do page layout on QuarkXPress, I wanted one so bad - but I just didn't have the money. My father brought me up to love the IBM PC, and that was that. He was strictly anti-Mac to the core. After that argument, he pretty much talked me out of getting one, or so we thought.

Being an amateur radio operator, I go to the local hamfests quite often, mostly to look, sometimes to pick up some computer oddities, or some parts. This particular one, I was shopping for a new PC. My poor old IBM XT decided it was time to be dead and buried, and it crapped out. Not a big deal, as it was a hand me down and deserved it's death. I was looking around through all the vendors used computers, and I happened across one person selling a Macintosh 512Ke. $80.00, complete with the keyboard, mouse, and ImageWriter printer, no software though. I walked around some more. Just as I was getting ready to get a PC, I said "no way," and went back to that guy. I bought a happy little 512k! No hard drive, rather poky in 1993, but I was the happiest 16 year old on the face of planet earth! I got an old copy of System 6.0.8 to run on it, a few games, and Microsoft Works. I was happy. I typed my term paper that year on the Mac just because I loved using that compact little machine.

Well, tragedy struck a few months later. My poor 512k decided to bite the bullet. Not knowing much about the hardware part of a Macintosh, I decided to just replace it with another computer. I decided this time to get an IBM machine, mostly for the simple fact that I could field strip one in about 10 minutes, and replace the parts. Back to the hamfest again.

I did it again. I bought a Mac Plus! Fully loaded with 1 MB of RAM, but no hard drive. I was happier than when I got the 512k! I had more RAM to play with. I could upgrade it, put a hard drive on it, and do most of what I wanted!

Now it's 1999, and although I still have this magnetic draw to the PC for some reason, I have Mac's everywhere. I have a IIsi sitting next to me, two Mac IIs with accelerators, a IIcx, even a Quadra 950! I just love these machines so much. They make my life so much easier.

I even ordered a PowerMac 7100 to take me in to the next millennium. It will be much faster, and much more used, than my most powerful Wintel machine is. (Which isn't that fast folks!)

Michael A. Stanhope
Computer Services of York
1755H Yorktowne Drive
York, PA 17404
http://members.tripod.com/computerservice/ - PC, Macintosh, Apple II, Laptop repairs. Apple Service Center.