A moment of appreciation

[TMD2003]

30 years ago today, in the early hours of the morning, I was woken by an ambulance siren and some commotion elsewhere in the house. Nevertheless, I went to school as normal. And when I came home, things weren't normal any more. My dad, who's been suffering from some kind of lymphoma, was dead. It was a bout of pneumonia that his cancer-weakened body couldn't handle.

He bought me a ZX81. And then, four years later, a Spectrum +2. I learned to program on the ZX81. He had a go at it as well, writing BASIC programs to convert temperatures from °C to °F, for instance. Whereas I... didn't. I wrote utter bilge that would be expected of a four-year-old. Now, the opening part of this paragraph may raise the ire of some of those who are older than me, even if age is strictly relative these days. But on receiving that +2 that is the reason I am still here today writing CSSCGC entries on it, I was a mere EIGHT years old. So even if I'd thought of getting a paper round to Hustle And Grind™ and to fund the purchase of the +2 myself, which is the One True Way, I severely doubt May & Brett's newsagent in Great Dunmow would have accepted someone so young. There were child labour laws in the 1980s. Maybe not in the 1880s, but certainly a century later. And besides, I wasn't at the local failing comprehensive school, or anywhere else that was within walking distance, so time didn't allow.

I went to a very well timed local beer festival and had a few pints in memory of the old man. And I'd also like to say cheers to @Lee Bee who sent a message of condolence... jumping the gun by a month, but it's the thought that counts. Lee, I owe you a corned beef sandwich. Come to Crash Live and I'll actually bring a loaf of bread and a tin of corned beef. Maybe a bottle of HP sauce as well.

There's been a lot of discussion about fatherlessness recently - not on here, mind, but in other places I frequent - and I hate to have to say that I am a product of that. I didn't ever think about shoplifting from May & Brett's newsagent, or anywhere else for that matter, and I'd certainly not think about doing what that Mizzy scrote does. However, being suddenly deprived of any source of fatherly advice just as I was about to turn 14 was about as awful timing as there could possibly have been. I have, for the last three decades, forged my own path through life. I had no other option. It has led me... deep into the wilderness. But at least those of you who are still prepared to tolerate my forays into Spectrum programming might get some amusement from that.

I dare not speculate what my dad would have made of me now. But he might be amused to find that, aged 43 years and 11 months, I have finally written a program entirely in machine code. @Jbizzel has already seen it and it'll go public soon enough. I promised myself I would do this, aged eight, when my ideas were very, very much bigger than my station at the time. I might not be fast, but I get there in the end.

I've still got the original +2, and it still works. I don't use it much as the RGB socket is dodgy and the picture jumps around all over the place with the Retro Computer Shack RGB lead, and I'm too used to using that on one of the black machines with the +3 innards to go back to the RF cable. I'm going to keep it working. It means a lot to me.

Cheers, Dad. And - I suspect there will be quite a few at the age most of us are - if anyone else has lost a parent who bought it to help with your homework and the household accounts - all right, maybe just to play games on - raise a beer or a non-alcoholic mocktail or a single malt Scotch whisky or a mug of Arthur Dent's favourite tea, or even something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea if that's your thing.