Computing Across America

Computing Across America, Chapter 8 by Steven K. Roberts October 14, 1983 Electronic hugs do nothing for me, unless they’re from someone I don’t know. — Comment heard online The escape from Cincinnati was a frantic and dangerous plunge through rush-hour traffic in the rain — a desperate competition with angry commuters racing the corporate…

Computing Across America, Chapter 7 by Steven K. Roberts October 10, 1983  Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.— Oscar Wilde The three of us sat in the living room. Amy was exuberant, babbling effervescently and building impressionistic structures with Lego blocks. She looked at…

Computing Across America, Chapter 6 by Steven K. Roberts October 4, 1983 I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance. —Ogden Nash My first sensation after the initial shock was freedom — a dizzying and unfamiliar freedom. I stood quietly as the…

Computing Across America, Chapter 5 by Steven K. Roberts October 1, 1983 Are yew with NASA?— Ohio farmer Passionately consuming a mug of iced root beer, I sat with Walt and Robby in a Mechanicsburg cafe. It was our first break. Outside, on a hot and sloping small-town main street, stood the bikes — mine the…

Computing Across America, Chapter 4 by Steven K. Roberts September 28, 1983 You ante’d up to play Russian Roulette. — Tom Hoobyar The day of departure dawned. Like every morning, the clock radio blared banalities aimed at a mixed audience of commuters and housewives. The guy in the traffic copter talked about “three-block delays on 71”…

Computing Across America, Chapter 3 by Steven K. Roberts September 27, 1983 Damn, that dude could survive a nucular war!— A Texan looking at the bike It was 2 a.m. on the morning of departure. I lay supine on hideous green sculptured pile, a murky carpet from the era of Doris Day that I had…

Computing Across America, Chapter 2 by Steven K. Roberts September 18, 1983  When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical bum is…

Computing Across America, Chapter 1 by Steven K. Roberts Dublin, Ohio March 15, 1983  What’s the matter Steve? You going to be a bum all your life?— Phyllis Roberts (my mother) Suburbia is not a place; it is a state of mind. It has little to do with the section of town you happen to live in;…