[khedoros1]

I was born in '84, and so was very young in the 80s, but it was normal for me around kindergarten age to walk alone to a friend's house in the neighborhood, find out that they weren't home, go somewhere else, and call home from there to update Mom on my location. Even just a few years after that, they were worried about kidnappings and such, and I wasn't allowed as much freedom anymore.

I've also always been interested in technology. I remember using some variant of Apple II in school (Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, and such), an IBM PCJr at home (a pack of Sesame Street games, Alleycat, and some others I don't remember well enough to identify). This was obviously before the internet was typically available in homes, and before the first web browser...I do remember using Prodigy on my grandfather's computer around the time (text-only, over a 2.4kbps modem). To me, one of the stark differences is that computers weren't so embedded and essential in people's lives.