I get closer and closer to attending KansasFest every year. All the after-reports I hear on the various retrocomputing podcasts I listen to confirm it’s the ultimate blast for a hardcore Apple II fan.
I was talking about it with my wife the other night, when my 10 year old daughter asked me what it was like. She asked if the people there are the same “old men that just like to talk about old computers all the time, like you,” that read this blog. This comment made me wonder whether or not she had a handle on just how cool an event KansasFest is and, by extension, those in attendance. So, I did a quick YouTube search to try and find some footage that would set her straight. Right away I found just the thing.
As soon as it began, she seemed to be utterly in awe. During the entire video she was uttering “Oh my god. Dad! Oh my god!” Overwhelmed, just two thirds of the way into it she powered the iPad off. After a moment, I asked her if she now understood that KansasFest is the coolest of gatherings. She just looked at me, apparently unable to express the strong degree to which she indeed understood.
We haven’t talked more about it as yet, but if I do attend for the first time next year, I think I know someone who’s going to be begging her dad to bring her along!
Relevant Link:
That was funkin’ funny. The venerable Apple II forever.
Now you have to make her watch the rest of it!
I believe that the comments about your age will dwindle over the next ten years or so. Of course, that may in part depend on her ability to dodge out of conversations about 16-bit computing.