When I was young, we spent our weekends in Port Stanley sailing. We would travel back to our home in St. Thomas but often we would stop at a small grocery store called “Gifford’s” to pick up whatever supplies we might need. While there, I would often check out the latest issue of Popular Science and often buy it to read interesting articles about technology.

One day, in the fall of 1982, I looked at the magazine rack and saw a headline which read World’s First $100 Computer. I instantly bought that issue and read the article. I knew I had to buy this computer. I had about $100 Canadian in my bank account and started talking to my mom and dad about using it to buy the Timex Sinclair 1000.

It was a tiny thing which came with 2K of memory (which didn’t mean anything to me at the time but 2048 seemed like a pretty big number to me) and would hook up to our TV just like our Atari 2600. But, I was about to learn about exchange rates, import duties and taxes. After talking to my parents, it was clear that the money in my bank account wasn’t going to be enough to buy this machine.

But, my dad had a better idea…