Originally published on Notes From the Fields We Know, January 23, 2015.
Where did we get our information from prior to the Internet? I no longer remember beyond vague, pleasant feelings of haunting old bookstores, reading specialist journals in college libraries, prowling the stacks in massive central libraries and hours spent tapping the grapevine in hole-in-the-wall eateries, beer joints and breaks at work. I crossed a line in 1981 with the release and my brother’s subsequent purchase of a Commodore VIC-20 microcomputer. Everything before the VIC-20 is ancient. Everything after modern. How did I live before? What did I do? How did I think? I scarcely know. For a science fiction infused young adult, the VIC-20 heralded the arrival of the future. The Great Outdoors and High Adventure and the Great Conversation all paled in comparison. I am the future I dreamed of when I was young. My deep past fades into a dream of auld lang syne.
January 23rd, 2015 9:49pm