macintosh.

 Write a detailed blurb on the memory of your first visit to the computer lab when you were young. And the subsequent visits, playing games on the giant floppy disks. I remember being taught how to organize them and slide them into the slot and login to the computer. The sensation and sound of pressing the seemingly giant keys. Though in comparison to the keyboard I'm typing on they were big and bulk. I recall the thrill of walking into the room, and the smell of the heat from the computers. It was a small room next to the water fountain and my favorite bathroom. The multipurpose room is on the other side, and the secret staircase between the first and second floor is across the hall. I wasn't allowed to use those until junior high, and I think it was only because of some extra curricular I was involved in. Girl Scouts or choir maybe? 

The computers gave off a mechanical technological smelling heat and the room quietly hummed with the electricity required to keep them all running. The absolute awe I had for this giant machine in front of me that was previously only known in science fiction movies. I can't even say I would play pretend with computers involved yet, at that time I had very little to use as a point of reference. Computers weren't a huge topic of conversation in my family. My grandmother worked in sales at JcPenny and still swiped credit cards manually. Using a carbon copy and sliding it back and forth in the now extinct "ch ch" sound, followed by the cha ching from the sound of the register opening. 

Computer lab days were special.  There were math games and spelling games and it was so satisfying to win. Fast forward to 5th grade--only 4 years later. Microsoft Word and typing games and Oregon Trail and hotmail.