I have loads of early Mac memories.

- I was one of the first kids in my high school in the early 1980′s to write a term paper on a computer, my dad’s Macintosh,  In 1993 we saw it in the Smithsonian Museum, while he was still using his to write stories and letters to his daughters.

- In college in the mid-1980’s, I was a writing tutor for students with learning and physical disabilities. They all used a Mac IIe because those with visual impairments could see the screen, and those with learning disabilities didn’t have to deal with pens and paper.  What a difference that computer made for their writing.

- In my first job out of graduate school, the company had PC’s, which, I assure you, felt like work.  But during that time I saw a demo of a Next computer, and I’ll never forget that amazing, rotating, purple 3D skull graphic. And the fact that computers didn’t have to be the color of nasty putty!

- My husband is a Mac fanatic through and through.  I remember a day when Apple wasn’t doing so well in the market.  Imagining a PC-only world was absolutely and utterly unbearable to him.  I think he’s on his 23rd Mac computer these days, not to mention countless iPods, iPads, and iPhones (yes, we waited in line for the first one – even had a pizza delivered to our sidewalk spot on Houston and Green Sts. in NYC).  I have received the gift of Macs.  Our families and friends all consult him on all their computer needs.  His brother bought a PC, and they barely spoke for a year.  Now he has a Mac.

So while it’s possible to imagine a world without Apple, it’s nowhere I want to live.  Steve Job’s death has been so very sad to me on a selfish level because he made my world so amazing.  I am sorry for his family and friends, and for the millions of others whose lives he not only touched, but changed radically.  Kids today are hard-wired for touch screens.  They have no idea how it used to be.  Before Steve Jobs.