I worked for DEC and remember people telling stories like yours. Lol.
But I bet it paid off for you. You probably rode “the wave” all the way from the beginning to now.
I first started in the early 80s and the IBM PC. I wrote term papers on my parents old Apple IIe.
My wife and I bought our first PC, a 286, and word perfect, lotus 123, in 1988 for $2000! It took us a while to pay it off but it was worth it. My wife was going to college at the time.
I remember replacing Lotu 123 with Quatro-pro :p
I remember (3 PCs before having a HD..) having to record everything on cassette.. about 15-30 minutes to record 8kb >.<
First PC with HD was about 1984.. 286.. Whopping 12MB hd.. could never fill the whole darn thing... (was Epson PC..and had DOT MATRIX Printer too :D).. and the mouse (M$) was $90 (2 button).. :/