Newsletter Issue #853: Forty Years? Has It Been That Long?
April 4th, 2016Some people are making a huge deal of Apple’s 40th anniversary. I suppose if you’ve followed every little thing the company has done since the original Apple I arrived, you might feel pleased the company has not only survived but prospered over the years despite the obstacles. That’s no mean achievement for any business.
But in 1976, I really wasn’t thinking about some fledgling personal computer company in the Silicon Valley. Not that I didn’t work on computers. I was actually using a typesetting computer at work in the heart of New York City, plying my trade as I attempted to reinvent myself after disengaging from a bad business deal. That year, I also met and married Barbara, and we’re still together.
My first exposure to anything with the Apple logo on it came a few years later, when I was working at a prepress studio in mid-Manhattan, just off Fifth Avenue. One of the members of the sales staff set up an Apple II in his tiny office, and used it to store contact information about clients and pending commissions. Ever curious about gadgets, I’d drop in there occasionally, as he happily demonstrated what his little gadget could do.
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