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Thinking back...

When did you get your first pocket calculator?

According to the Calculator Timeline at Vintage Calculators it was likely early 1970s.

Because that's when the first of the hand-held pocket calculators began selling in big numbers.

Which takes me back to 1973 when my father bought me my first pocket calculator.

I was attending year eight of schooling and an education department debate had been raging about whether or not students should be allowed to have pocket calculators at school.

The school I was attending had declared it 'legal' for students to bring a calculator to class.

Me: Dad, I need a calculator, please.

Dad: What for?

Me: To calculate. I really need one, dad.

Before my father knew what he was financially in for we were already in the car and heading to the nearest shopping plaza.

The first of the true shirt-pocket-sized calculators were not cheap to buy.

Something in the order of 40 or 50 dollars.

Allowing for inflation $40.00 in 1973 is equal to $232 in 2018.

Still small potatoes when compared to what we willingly pay today for a new smartphone complete with much more than a calculator - but back in the early 1970's we were not yet conditioned to investing in personal technology.

But that was about to change.

We'd just seen Neil Armstrong take 'one small step for man - one giant leap for mankind' by walking on the moon in 1969.

And to many of us owning our first personal calculator was like owning our own slice of Neil Armstrong's future.

Can you remember holding your first pocket calculator and being fixated at the 'amazing' technology at your fingertips?

'Look, dad! I can enter 247 X 63 and press a button and the correct answer magically appears on this little screen in less than a second!'

When you think back to owning your first calculator you might also recall:

• a flip-top screen covering the window of the displayed digits
• silver, red or green colored LCD (Liquid Crystal Device) displays
• attempting to multiply 12345678 by 12345678 and getting E
• entering 07734 then turning the calculator upside-down to read the word 'hello'

Pocket calculators progressed rapidly and within only a few short years the market was flooded with options and prices had dropped. Same thing happened with the first mobile phones too if you remember.

Anyhow, that's our trip down memory lane for today. Back when a condition known as Forward Head Posture (FHP) wasn't 'a thing'.

(FHP: is a condition where the skull protrudes forward more than an inch over the vertebra in the neck on which the head rests. Commonly caused by continued positioning of one's head in a forward and down position while using a handheld device).

Back when getting your first pocket calculator felt like you'd just taken a small step into the future with Neil Armstrong.

Mike Searles is a baby boomer and freelance writer - www.facebook.com/mikejsearles

Sources:
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/calculator_time-line.html
https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/history-of-the-calculator-2.php?page=2
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/evolution_of_today-s_calculator.html

Image credit: Joe Haupt, flickr, (CC BY-SA 2.0)