Growing up in a small town didn't afford me many opportunities to meet people into the same things I was into, so the 2 weeks I spent at camp were eye opening. Computer Camps were still new, so they were still making the news, and after awhile we all got used to the camera crews crawling all over the place. One interesting effect was that my parents saw my picture in Time Magazine before I'd ever had a chance to write home.

I kept in touch with people for a while -- the guy from Alberta (my first exposure to the "eh?" part of speech), the guy fom Northern California who was really into Santana, and all the rest. But of course, eventually it all fell by the wayside in favor of what was happening right next to me.

It took quite a while to deal with being back home. I felt so separate from the people that I was going to school with. It was also the real beginning of programming for me. I had fiddled about with computers at stores, but could never get very far because I couldn't save my work. But at camp we could work on projects for days. I really regretted not having a computer at home.

Did anybody else out there go to this camp? Does anyone else remember Zaca Lake, circa 1981? Man, it'd be cool to hear from other people that have gone through the same experience. It really was a unique time -- most kids nowadays don't have to travel significant distances to find people to geek out with. Part of the uniqueness for me was that I got to travel on the plane by myself. I wore my Computer Camp t-shirt and met someone on the layover at SFO that was also going there. That was cool.

Obviously I look back upon that time with fondness. It would be nice to find someone else who remembers it.

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