TZUTC: -0700   
   MSGID: 23386.memories@1:218/700 2d15fc4c   
   REPLY: 7158.fido_memories@1:124/5016 2d148ffa   
   PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Win32 master/955e50fea Aug 09 2025 MSC 1942   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.29-Win32 master/955e50fea Aug 09 2025 MSC 1942   
   BBSID: REALITY   
   CHRS: CP437 2   
   FORMAT: flowed   
   -=> Mortar M. wrote to Ed Vance <=-   
      
    > The first calculator cost me $79.00, it was a Four Banger with a Constant   
    > Key and NO Memory.   
      
    MM> What's a "four banger"?   
      
    Artithmetic only? Add, Subtract, Multiply, divide?   
      
    MM> My first was a Sharp EL-5100.  I forget the price, but I think it was   
    MM> around the same as yours.  Loved that thing.  It had the unique feature   
    MM> of being able to (mostly) type out algebraic expressions like you would   
    MM> on paper.   
      
    I ordered a calculator after collecting box tops from some breakfast   
    cereal in the late '70s. Then, slim wallet calculators became the rage   
    - right about the time, albeit brief, that nylon/velcro wallets were   
    "cool".   
      
    It wasn't many years later before the first calculator watches came   
    out, my parents had a friend who worked at Hewlett Packard and had one   
    of their calculator watches - the LED model with a stylus.   
      
    My black rubber Casio calculator watch had to wait until much later.   
      
    I still have a drawer full of calculators - a couple of HP business   
    models including a vintage HP 12c, a couple of HP scientifics, another   
    of the CASIO Programmable calculator I used in the early '80s (bought   
    off eBay last year and still on the original battery!) and a couple of   
    scientific calculators. I keep a solar Casio scientific at my desk,   
    mostly because I hate having to look for a calculator app on my   
    desktop, and clicking buttons with a mouse feels *wrong*.   
      
      
       
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