In the course of looking through an old folder that has undergone several, if not many, transferences from one computer to another, I found this great piece of history. It is a copy of a letter I sent to my brother Brian.
8 December 1986
Dear Brian,
This is my first effort at writing on Kay’s new toy—the Apple Macintosh. I have played for a short while to get the feel of it in the typing mode on Macwrite and I guess the next thing to do is to try something constructive. One thing that is evident at first is the lack of a bell at the end of the line and having to choose when to stop and operate the return key. This machine does it all by itself and decides for itself to turn the corner.
I find it isn’t easy to work out how to sit so that the screen is at the right height for my eyes when I look up, and how to have it at the right distance for my bifocals. I can see me having to construct a special desk so that the keyboard is down lower than the table top and the screen is at eye level.
We brought the machine home on Friday night and then found that the electric cord to the mains was missing. Kay—who is the most placid of women—became quite scratchy, even slighty bitchy, about the incompetence of otherwise helpful colleagues. Must say, it doesn’t take long to work out how to make corrections and amendments to the text. Have just worked out how to scroll it up and down to show Kay what I had written earlier. Big question is, I guess, how to know when to stop and put in a page number—or maybe this programme does it for me. Now Kay tells me that I should have nominated the page depth.
I think I prefer aircraft. At least you can look out the window and see what is going on. We have at this stage the Macwrite word processor programme that does a lot of other things as well, the Macpaint and the Macdraw. Somewhere along the line we are getting the flight simulator programme that features a Cessna instead of a Piper Cherokee. The one toy on this machine I do like is the mouse. It doesn’t take very long to get the hang of running the mouse along a line of text and changing or deleting a wrong letter. Kay has just suggested we should print the Christmas newsletter this year on the Macintosh and print it off on her office Laser printer. I have a horrible feeling that it might take us a very long time with much torment and lost sleep. I have a very real fear that at some stage there will be a power cut and I will lose all my hard work and have to start again.
I haven’t dared try to put in the flight planning programme. That is going to have to wait for some time until I start to get the hang of loading and, more importantly, saving what I’ve done.
I’ve just realised I have an aviation medical tomorrow so I had better not go in to the doctor with blurry eyes. Will write again soon with news of progress. Regards to all and may see you before Christmas, although I don’t know when. We are having quite a time what with one thing and another. I spent all day Saturday in Christchurch in a meeting of union and employer representatives on the wool testing dispute. Quite an eyeopener. I’m not used to that sort of language flying across the table. Much love to the family from us both.
Kay and Bill (the typist on this occasion)
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Old Man's Folly 