"What" Made Me Who I Am? Part 2

This morning, I was watching some Youtube videos by a guy who collects a lot of things that I enjoy, such as console radios/tvs, computers and other electronic gear. It started me thinking quite a bit on why I like what I do. Of course, there is natural inclination. I like things that do something. I like intricate mechanisms. I like well-fitted enclosures that protect, hide and enhance. All these things, I feel like I was born with a natural propensity toward. However, you can't leave out environment. I'm the son of an engineer with an engineer brother, so all my life, I've been surrounded, or more accurately immersed in technology. You can pretty much say that it started with this..... a Telefunken Sonata stereo console "system". Within this cabinet was a receiver, turntable, and 2 oval speakers. I can remember sitting in front of it in our living room (both in Hong Kong and later in Texas), listening to my Dad's records. It was a seminal moment in my life, when Dad allowed me to put on records and start it under his watchful eye. It's still in our house today! Although the receiver has long-since died from lack of replacement tubes, we have the cabinet in my son's room holding up his LCD TV/Monitor that his old video game consoles are hooked up to. It had been stored in the garage for a number of years, but I recently refinished it and brought it inside. It gave me a sense of continuity and warmth, just to still have it almost 50 years down the road.

Some of you will recognize the Voigtlander Bessamatic Deluxe, that was another "Dad-instrument". I believe that I not only learned the love of photography on this camera, but also the love of fine instruments. This thing was absolutely 100% mechanical, built in the post-war West Germany that was renowned for such things (as was the Telefunken). This camera was built in the last years of the here-to-fore dominant German camera industry right around the time that it was surpassed by the rising tide of Japanese electronic and manufacturing prowess. The things that I take away from this camera is the feel of fine mechanical construction that's indescribable, and oddly; that distinctly smell of German leather from the case!

Then came this...... "Are you kidding me?", you say? It was the first half of the 70's and American console TVs still dominated that landscape. I clearly remember my dad taking me to a store (which no longer exist) on Ave Q in Lubbock, Texas that sold (as was common in those days) appliances as well as televisions. This was not only to be our TV for the next 20-or-so years, but my Christmas present that year as well. A big (25") Zenith (it was either Zenith or RCA then) console TV in those days was a "capitol" purchase. This was the set I remember sitting in my parent's home for virtually the entirety of my teenage years onwards. It was what I religiously watch the daily reruns of the original Star Trek episodes as well as Batman with Adam West. For a few years during my Junior High years, shows like Emergency, and Happy Days. And yes, for a time, it did indeed serve as the stand for their new TV!

And then came the "teen" years. If you were a teen in the U.S. of the 70's, there was one important thing.... and that was "cool", as in being cool, and having cool stuff. Like the kids running around wearing their giant headphones now, it was cool to have component stereo equipment. Most of you remember the ads in just about every magazine..... of the obviously cool guy with the "hot" girl (or at least that's what we say now), in the cool apartment with the cool stereo equipment in the background!?! The more components, the better, the more knobs and switches, the better, and by the later part of the decade; if it was BLACK, even better! I bought a used receiver from my brother's friend Richard. It was a fairly high-end piece by Kenwood that was branded Realistic (Radio Shack). It looked somewhat like the one above, but bigger, with more...you guessed it.... knobs and switches, plus an unusual feature of that time..... a remote control. 

And if you wanted to separate yourself from the crowd, you had multiple components variously stacked all over your built-in bookcase. For me, this ranged from a Dual 1215 (actually my dads), a Advent Cassette deck (that originally belonged to my sister), and a 8-Track deck (that belonged to my other sister before they moved away). I was one of the few people who I knew who could record on 8-track, which most car of the day, came factory equipped.

All this played through a pair of KLH, 2-way "bookshelf" speakers. For Abernathy, Texas in the late 70's, this equipment separate me from the pack, and was one of the few "cool" things in my life. Most people still had the old consoles in their living room that had the stereo, record player AND TV all in one big cabinet!

A few years down the road, this came into my life. A TI 99/4A of the early 80's. I was back home at the time, having done a "reboot" on my academic pursuits by going back to get a teaching certification. My brother was working at Texas Intruments as a design engineer and thus had access to all things TI. This ranged from weird LCD watches to TI's foray into home computing. I played games on it, and even learned a little bit of programming in Basic before it went into to my friend's Mom a few years later. 

But it was actually about 10 years later when I bought an IBM ThinkPad 701c that I really fell in love with computers. Now, many years later, it's considered a work of art and resides in museums. For me though, it was the computer that changed how saw and dealt with an entire category of devices. This became the first digital device that pretty much went with me everywhere. Due to it's amazing folding keyboard (hence the "Butterfly" name), it's compact dimensions allowed it to easily travel. From the arrival of this machine till today's X301, there's been very few periods in my life where I didn't have an "Ultra-portable" in my possession. 

No, I wasn't just born a full-blown Propellerhead. From those days of sitting with my dad listening to music on the Telefunken or out shooting photographs on the Voigtlander, till now, these are the products that have shaped me. If I wasn't married with kids, I could completely see myself being just like the guy who made those videos.... maybe with the exception of collecting vacuum cleaners!