Christmas!
The kids over the moon about their Kindles - thank you Gracie and Moe. Other than Eitan's mobile (which he got for No. 11) this their first bit of personal electronica. The Shakespeares avid readers and Madeleine devours "Harriet The Spy" and the "Diary Of The Wimpy Kid" series; Eitan in to Sir Bobby Charlton's autobiography (I note the last library stamp on this one circa 2008). The beauty of the Kindle is its simplicity : all Dad has to do is remember the wi-fi password and Amazon account details. I recall neither. At least I don't have to assemble an erector set.
In 1978 my "must have" gift a Calico hand-held football game that chased red dots across a 2cm X 8cm green screen. I could run up the center, one click to the right or one click to the left, being chased by "tacklers". I did this for hours. I was the envy of our neighbourhood. I did not sleep the night before anticipating the gift.
Calico part of the first wave of personal digital crapola that included offerings from Casio, Commodore, Atari and pong, which all bring back warm memories of the 70s. Laurence Hall of Science and its computer lab loomed large - how extraordinary that none of my East Bay friends went straight to Silicon Valley.
