When Cindy Lou came downstairs Wednesday evening to ask if Steve Jobs had died -- she had read an RIP comment about him on Facebook -- I immediately went to my Safari browser and found that, indeed, news of his passing was 34 minutes old.
Cindy was a bit upset, while I was a bit more stoic, knowing he had been sick for years. While I’m not a great fan of Facebook, I immediately opened my home page and wrote, ‘Thanks, Steve. Because of you my life is different. I am in your debt.‘ Then I cut and pasted in the photo you see above.
I’ve been thinking about Steve much ever since. First, I found it fitting, yet a bit odd, that his passing was treated by the media like he was a head of state. I heard one of the big New York newspapers ran a banner headline 6 columns wide. I wondered how big the headline was on 9/12?
I’ve been an Apple guy since the beginning. Well, pretty close to the beginning, anyway. I didn’t care about an Atari or anything I’d have to assemble from Radio Shack, but when the Apple II came out -- ready right out of the box -- I thought maybe that was the one.
I didn’t know exactly what all of us in the family would do with a personal computer, but I heard of games kids could play and that it might be the today thing to do in the mid-80s. I heard it was a good word processor, too, which appealed to me because of all of the classroom documents I continually typed up.
As I recall, Jenni and Kelly didn’t seem too interested. Maybe it was too techie for them. It didn’t look that appealing, to be honest, with that monochrome green type on a black background. I sure grew to like it for school work, though. Didn’t take me long to get hooked.
I got my first Mac in 1991. Oh, such a hummer it was! A PowerMac with 4MB of RAM, if I’m not mistaken. Got a special deal because I was a teacher, too. The internet was still a dream pretty much, but before I bought my next Mac, I was hooked up to dial up and was pretty impressed with AOL’s ‘You’ve got mail.’
I could go on about my personal relationship with my Mac, but a thought I had yesterday really got to me: What if my Dad had a modicum of tech savvy and had the chance to engage with a personal computer? How different was his life from mine because of Steve Jobs?
I have memories of my Father sitting in his recliner in the Fauver Avenue living room watching television every night. I still remember the treat it was sitting up with him watching Jack Parr now and then. And the way he loved Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone is probably why I’ve come to love science fiction. After cable came along, I could count on him watching some John Wayne movie on an evening I’d stop by with the kids.
You see, you have to understand that my Dad was an artist. I always wondered what would have happened if World War II hadn’t come along and dragged him out of his 21 year-old life in Dayton, Ohio. How would he have developed that skill that his teachers at St. Anthony School recognized when he was asked to draw something for the classroom? My mother likes to tell that story.
After the war he worked in interior design, though I think he primarily hung drapes. And after that, of course, came Patty, Mike, and Tommy and the race was on to keep a roof over all our heads, food on the table, and shoes on growing feet. He ended up spending most of his life installing flooring for Rike’s.
I remember, too, being in awe of his ‘how-to’ sketch books of the human nude. All girls. Well, at least as I remember.
Dad drew pretty well, too. He liked faces most. Beyond that he engineered tile patterns at our front door and on the bathroom wall. The art he is best remembered for is his woodworking. When we cleaned out the garage after he died, we found semi-truck cabs cut out of pine, a couple wooden ferris wheels, walking alligators hinged with pieces of bicycle tires, and, of course, Mr. Duck. Ask Kelly about that one.
So I wonder where Dad would be if he knew what I knew? How would he approach PhotoShop? What kinds of webpages would he have designed by now? I know no drawing programs because it isn’t my thing, but I flat out guarantee you he’d have a half dozen of ‘em on his Mac.
I wonder if he’d be into anime? I know you can create moving characters from scratch these days with a $50 app. Or I wonder if he’d be designing homes? He built the Fauver Avenue place with his Dad, after all. I wonder if he’d trade the tv screen for the computer screen? Shoot, I wonder if he would taken to designing apps?
I am so grateful for Steve Jobs having come into my life. I never met him, of course, but would have liked to. His imagination has impacted mine. As I said, I am in his debt. I truly love being creative and learning on the computer.
But what’s more, like the father and son at the end of Field of Dreams, instead of asking Dad if he wanted to have a catch, I would have loved to have taken him to the Apple Store and then watch his eyes light up.
Today’s Elder Idea: Tom, you were, and still are, a nature and music lover. That, too, I think, came from my genes and also from my mother who also was a music lover. You, today, still love the beauty God put on this earth and you like to protect it. Keep it up.
Ted Schaefer
from a letter Dad wrote to us
the year before he died
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