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Archive for the 'Letters from Kids' Category
Letters to Santa, 1982
Published December 5, 2014 Christmas , Christmas Lists , Letters from Kids , Newspapers 5 Comments
“My old B.B. gun just doesn’t have enough power to kill what I want to shoot.” Yup. The letters are from a Texas newspaper. Lots of Atari and tabletop/mini arcade game mentions, especially Pac-Man, and one brave soul asked for “electronic Dungeons and Dragons.”
Notes from a Time Capsule, 1983
Published August 13, 2014 Atari , Intellivision , Letters from Kids , Personal Computers , Tron 6 Comments
I sense a theme in these 6th grade student statements from the 1982-1983 school year, summed up nicely by Navin Joneja: “The movie Tron is a perfect example of how computers might take over the world.”
The capsule was sealed in 1983 and released in 2006. The photos are via Mike Bouchard, who was in the class that wrote the notes.
I’m glad Chris provided his exact coordinates. Otherwise Santa might have kissed the wrong brother.
(Via Don Stephens/Flickr)
It says “nice horse” in the third line, if you can’t make it out.
Thank you, Shawn Bouckaert, for sharing this. My day has been made.
Letter from Computer Camp, 1983
Published May 8, 2013 Computer Camp , Letters from Kids , Personal Computers 3 Comments
This beauty is from Ben Ullman’s Flickr. The “microcomputer” he’s talking about is a TRS-80 Model 16, a pretty sophisticated (for the time) business system that sold for $5,000 when released in 1983. With peripherals, it was a lot more.
Here’s the main menu for Scripsit, the word processing program written for the TRS-80s.
“I can correct my mistakes on the screen and then print the letter out perfectly.” That line really gets me. It’s hard to imagine now, but what we take for granted as the most basic of conveniences was not very long ago a revolutionary event, as anyone who’s ever had to use a typewriter can tell you.
These days, the suggestion that we correct what we type/text carries the stink of fanaticism, and hard copies are simply food for the shredder.
I hope you snagged a ribbon at one of the races, Ben. Old Acres sounds like a nice place to spend the summer.
(TRS-80 and Scripsit images via Connecting the Dots, ZDNet, and Wikipedia)
2 Warps to Neptune 