I was 11, so, 1980. My friend rolled up on his bike, and said I gotta check out this thing at the local radio shack - you'd type something and it would say it

I was 11, so, 1980. My friend rolled up on his bike, and said I gotta check out this thing at the local radio shack - you'd type something and it would say it! Found out it wasn't that easy. But Radio Shack didn't kick my poor ass out that often, and they had programming books on their shelves and good for the time computers. They'd kick me out of one R.S., I'd go to another one, or I'd go up to an electronics store "Shaak Electronics"(?) where they had the new Apple IIs, PETs, and Atari 400/800s. Eventually I turned 12, got my own money (paper route - minimum age), and my dad took out a $600 loan, so I could get a 16k Atari 400, a 410 Tape Recorder for storage, and a black and white TV. I only had the PILOT and BASIC programming languages - so I learned 6502 assembly from coding bytes into a basic string and running it, lol I still love computers