Detecting the Tech
March 28th, 2012Can someone be born a techie? I believe it’s a genetic predisposition. My father loved tinkering, he took pride in fixing appliances in our house. He marveled at the old inventions as well as the new inventions. My husband’s father having never taken a class in engineering, taught wiring, welding and architectural rendering. My husband who is an artist by profession, also thinks like an engineer.
Gadgets have fascinated me from my earliest memories. many of these that captured my attention were classified office tools like my dad’s stapler, Dictaphone or his humble ticket punch. His AutoPoint mechanical pencil which had a red lead end as well as a blue lead that I took apart and examined and his ticket punch that we used to play conductor. My mother had an egg beater, the manual type, and a meat grinder that once secured to the table, I volunteered to make ham. I prefer using scissors or a paper cutter over and X-Acto knife. I had my share of dolls but I also like my brothers toy gas station with its working car lift. By the time the Etch-a-Sketch made its debut I was too old (or so my parents thought) to have one. I had to wait until have children of my own to get to play with one. Get earned my “great gizmo” seal of approval.
My own son, at the age of 18 months, disassembled the old-style ballpoint pen (the kind you must unscrew to open which revealed an internal spring which enabled it to click) and reassembled it. This clearly indicated excellent small motor ability and a pension for gizmos. As he began to toddle his dexterity was made even more apparent as we found cabinet knobs unscrewed. By the time he was in primary grades he was asking for things to take apart. For fear of what he might consider taking apart, my husband, Michael, got a hold of an old motor and let him have at it. Today he is a website manager with expansive skills in website programming. In hands-on mode he has a bike which he is constantly tinkering. He has definitely graduated from taking part to being able to reassemble with aplomb.
In 1985 I have decided that we needed a computer for the home. Not just any computer but one that allowed us to create in color. The Amiga fit the bill and It fulfilled my hunger for all things techie for while. My husband, my son and I taught ourselves computer. One of us would make a discovery and share with the others. We still do this today. The 2 Amigas were followed by a series of Macs. Our children like the children of our generation grew up with computers and are very comfortable with them.
As a family we have a complexity of interests including art, technology, history, music, books, film and so much more. I would say that we mash them together. For instance I collect vintage staplers (I am an inveterate collector) and create art with them is the subject. My son adds music and art on his creative websites. My husband’s websites often include historic and vintage books references.
Among my friends and family, our people adverse to anything that is computerized. I do not try to convert them over to the tech world. I believe, like many other interests, you either have a propensity for technology or you don’t.




