We Buy Computers

Photo by Barn Finds

When I was in college, a student/co-worker I knew gave me an old computer he wanted to get rid of. It wasn’t the best computer out there. It was free. I always like free stuff. That’s the best, isn’t it? It was an ancient computer. It had a 5 ¼ inch floppy drive. Do you remember those? Some of my readers may not even know what that is.

The CPU box was huge and heavy. Think a very large square box. The monitor was equally huge and heavy. The monitor sat on top of the CPU box. I had a small desk. It was difficult to get it onto my desk. I hoped it would not collapse the desk. Luckily, nothing bad happened and it stayed strong on the desk. No accidents.

I played games on it mostly. I remember having the games, Wheel of Fortune and Pac-Man. I played those all the time. Every minute of free time was spent on that computer. I’m sure I played other games but I just don’t remember which ones. That was such a long time ago. To play the game, you needed to run it from the a: prompt. That was the letter of the drive where the floppy was.

5 1/4” floppy, Photo from Internet

Eventually, I got to upgrade to a newer computer because my friend R, who I met in college, was looking to get a better one for himself. He told me that I could have his computer once he got his new computer. We would talk about what he was getting all the time. We also worked together for a brief time.

I had gone to his house several times and seen this computer. It was a 386. He was upgrading to a 486. I was getting it used but I didn’t care. We didn’t have the money to buy a brand new computer. I remember his parents weren’t very keen on him giving it away to me for free. But that is what he wanted to do.

R had heard about a guy who had a computer business in either Indian Harbour Beach or Satellite Beach. I can’t remember which one it was. He also bought used computers. He thought we should take the old ancient computer there and see about selling it.

At the time, I was driving my Mom’s 1979 green Mercury Bobcat hatchback. The photo is the beginning looks exactly like the car with the exception of the color. The car was old because this was back in the 1992 to 1993 time range. The hatchback portion had hydraulics that kept the back end open.

Unfortunately, the hydraulics were failing. Whenever you had to get anything out of the back, you had to have someone holding it up for you. So it was a two-person job. One person to hold it, while the other person got whatever it was out of the back.

My Mom had helped me the night before get the computer into the car. Then I picked up R at his house and we took off for the computer business.

When we arrived at the business, R jumped out right away and went into the building. He didn’t wait for me to tell him that I needed help with the hatchback. So I was stuck trying to do it myself.

I managed to get the hatchback open but then this is where I had problems. I couldn’t hold it and get the heavy computer and monitor out without someone else helping me. Did I give up? No, I tried it anyway. Here I was holding the glass hatchback with the back of my head and back, trying to get the computer out of the car. Both the monitor and the CPU box were in a separate box. I struggled for ten minutes or more. I tried to pull on the boxes but I couldn’t get them to budge. Even if I could get them to move, how was I going to get them out when I was holding the glass hatchback up with my back? Finally, I went in and told R I needed his help. He came out and it took some doing but we finally managed to get the computer and monitor into the business.

It was a very small building. I can’t remember what street it was on. That would help me to tell you what city it was in. I do remember what the building looked like on the inside. You walked in the front door and there was a lot of clutter in the front and toward the back. The guy was seated at a desk all the way at the other end of the room.

He had curly, shaggy brown hair and a scraggly beard. He appeared to be short in height.

While we were talking to him, a gorgeous woman appeared. She was a looker. She had long brown hair and she could have been a model. That’s how beautiful she was. She ended up kissing the guy. We found out it was his wife. These two did not look like they went together.

Then, the hammer dropped. He didn’t want it.

After all the trouble we went through to get it there and then he didn’t want it. We were mad.

On the way back to R’s place, we talked about that woman. We both couldn’t believe that she was with him. Sometimes you wonder how certain people get together. I know there isn’t any real reason of how two people get matched up. There wasn’t anything wrong with the guy. It was just that he didn’t look like he would go with someone so gorgeous. It’s funny how that stuff happens sometimes.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this story. I don’t know what R told the guy while I was out struggling to get the computer out. I wish I knew because maybe I wouldn’t have had to create so much trouble for myself trying to get the computer out. Or I should have just gone in first and told the guy what I had and was he interested. It would have saved me a bunch of hassle.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt