How I got interested in computers - let's go back to 1983

I'm pretty sure the year was 1983 and I was in first grade. Once a week, if memory serves me, we would go to a computer class. It was a room outside of the auditorium in P.S. 34 which is in Queens Village, New York.

To give you an idea of how new computers in school was at the time, the white boards were chalk boards. Chalk... Dust... Everywhere! I do wonder how long that computer lasted. Anyway, there was only one computer and it sat on the teacher's desk facing the class. I do not recall the make or model. Odds are it was an IBM 5150, but honestly, I can't remember. What I do remember is that the teacher only taught us very rudimental things about computers. No programming, just what computers can do and would give us ideas about these things every week while also teaching us the components that make up a computer. He didn't always use the computer on the desk. He would sometimes bring in a toy, Big Trak, to teach us basic ideas in communicating with computers and getting them to do what we ask. Alright, I guess you can say that was programming, but not quite.

I was interested, but I wasn't fascinated. For Christmas of 1984, my parents bought my brother and I a Coleco ADAM computer. For whatever reason, we didn't set it up right away. I'm guessing we didn't realize it had a ColecoVision built-in. Anyway. a few months later I watched WarGames on home video. I was blown away that computers could do the things depicted in the movie. And being able to call another computer?? Blew my young mind.

I ran into the basement, dug out the ADAM and hooked it up to my bedroom television. After that, all I wanted to read about was computers. IBM, Apple, Commodore, Atari, no matter what brand, I wanted to know more about them and of course, used them. That's how it started.