Calling Old Geeks

Slowly but surely we have been cleaning out the boxes and bins we moved from our old residences to our new house. The goal is to clear out enough of the clutter to remodel half of the basement into the hip media center and play room I have imagineered. Right now most of the area is filled 3-high with boxes and bins.

As we clean them out, you make those anguished decisions about what stays and what goes. I schlepped a fair amount of stuff from Ashland to here. The trains are boxed up. The music CD's are boxed up. The old albums are boxed up [yes Dave, I have your Procol Harum Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra album] . I culled my books and brought just my 20 or so favorites - boxed up. And then there is the other stuff.

I cleaned out a bin last week and came across the game Cosmic Wimp-Out, the Atari 2600 game console, the Timex Sinclair personal computer (with 16K add-on memory), a bunch of cigarette holders (I collected them for a while), some Star Trek trading cards, and a scrap book.

I dutifully transferred the game, cards, and scrap book to the KEEP bin. I put the computer and Atari in the TRASH bin. Later I dumped the trash bin into a trash bag and carried it out to the garbage cans.

Nostalgia held my arm for a moment. I shook her, but that only caused the bag to drop NEXT to the can and not into the can. There it has sat for the last week.

So here is the message of this post. Does anyone want the Timex or the Atari before I junk them?

Disclaimer: I had already chucked all of the Atari cartridges (after checking on E-Bay to make sure they had no significant value) and I do not remember seeing the power adapter. Not sure if the joystick and paddles are there either. The Timex, however, was still boxed and intact, exactly as the photo above.

Special note to Pop: Procol Harum's bassist is Matt Pegg, son of Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg.