Nice site!. It has brought back many memories.

I started programming when I was 14. A teacher at school (Nth Island, NZ) bought a TRS-80 model 1 and I was instantly hooked. That same year my Dad bought me a System80.

I remember unboxing it on the kitchen table and loading the Dancing demon, and my little sisters laughing, singing and dancing.
I programmed a lot of games in basic (of course). And also tried to write a side scroller in assembly (two tapes to load the IDE!), with very limited success, even though I was reading the massive manual that came with it.

Anyway, most of my life programming now. Started when not many people were, and now I'm 60 it seems that very soon people won't need to anymore. So I guess I had the good generational fortune to hit a sweet spot in computing history.

Cheers!