The Mac turns 40 today, so I figured I’d use the occasion to write about my first Macintosh. Before he retired, my Dad was a consultant at a firm. What he did was niche, but he was top three in his field. While I was in elementary school, my dad threatened to go independent and went so far as to set up a home office. We’d already had an Apple //c in the house, so he bought another Apple for his new business, a Macintosh LC II. I was immediately enamored with it. I loved the Apple //c, but this was so much better. The problem was I wasn’t allowed to touch it.

Fast forward three more years.

My dad’s employer had long convinced him to stay, I was in middle school, and my older brother had just gone off to college. It was Christmas, and all I wanted was a CD player like the one my older brother had. We opened presents. No CD player. That’s when my mother said the following.

“We can get you a CD player or you can have Dad’s computer, and we’ll get you a CD drive and some speakers.”

So I got my dad’s Macintosh LC II. The LC II wasn’t a great computer to begin with and certainly wasn’t anything to write home about in 1995, but that Mac started my passion for technology and opened up my world in incalculable ways.