The Magnavox Odyssey was the first commercial home video game console
We were dirt poor, and I remember the day my father brought home the Magnavox Odyssey box. My brother and I learned all the state capitals, we had fun with the ski game, and the other overlays that came with it which fit perfect on our Magnavox TV! I remember trying to put plastic wrap on the screen and use markers to make our own games. Wow, I just had a wave of nostalgia that warmed me up a bit! Static held the overlays in place. The controllers reminded me of an Etch-A-Sketch, and so I was able to navigate the square due to the muscle memory. This was 1972. I was 8 years old.<p>My first computer came five years later. It was a Commodore PET 2001 followed by a Vic-20. I had saved up $832 from working odd jobs - shoe shine boy, fixing bicycles, newspaper route (in a bad neighborhood), and saving my allowance. I always thank my Dad to this day for buying the Odyssey when I know there were days we didn&#x27;t have anything in the refrigerator before this time. My Mom and Dad also bought us two sets of encyclopedias on a payment plan. It was the renaissance of my family&#x27;s way towards getting out of poverty. When our top floor Brooklyn apartment burned down, amazingly the outward facing bindings of the encyclopedias were pitch black, and the end books, but the whole set survived the fire which was in the center of the apartment. My brother and I used those encyclopedias all through high school, and into university. He was the first to graduate in my immediate family. Good memories.