My parents didn’t believe in television for kids, but they definitely believed in computers. They got us one of the first personal desktop computers ever made, the Macintosh LE. It was black and white and had a tiny screen. When you started it up the first time, there was an interactive video that taught you how to use your mouse to click on folders and open them, because nobody had ever seen a mouse or folder before. The computer came with a game- Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego. The game box included the disc, but also included a thick paperback encyclopedia and a notepad. This was the first indication that the game was going to be ridiculously hard. The objective of this game, like all the subsequent Carmen Sandiego titles, was to find Carmen Sandiego by tracking down her henchman. The names of the henchmen were all puns- Nosmo King. You would be given a clue and then you would have to cross reference that clue in the encyclopedia. Often, the clues required leaps of logic - if
When I was little, I wanted to fly more than anything in the world. I remember taking wooden blocks left over from our deck and trying to build a helicopter, but I Couldn’t figure out how to make the blades. My Red Radio Flyer wagon seemed to hold much more promise. One afternoon, I cut wings and a tail out of a cardboard shipping box. I duct taped the wings and the tail to my Radio Flyer. They didn’t stay straight- in fact, they dragged on the ground- but I figured they would straighten out once I got going fast enough. put on goggles, and rode it down the hill behind our house. It did not go fast enough to fly.