Goodwill Austin Computer Museum

We took a round about way to get to the museum field trip, but in the end all turned out well.


Late last year a flyer landed in my inbox offering tours behind the scenes of Goodwill Austin. I thought this would be a great opportunity for the boys to see a non-profit in action. I sent an e-mail, signed us up and told them about our field trip plans.


Let's just say we were not their target audience.


What the flyer did not make clear (or omitted) is that this presentation/tour was intended for potential employers for GW "graduates". Sorry we've got nuthin. Actually that's not entirely true. As a small business owner I'm always looking for good help, but first I have to go through all of my family as potential employees. That could take awhile so we're back to we've got nuthin.


The boys made their hasty retreat and I quickly followed, unfortunately walking out on the CEO of Goodwill Austin. Well it wasn't a walk-out so much as a quiet exit. No matter I'm sure he's over it.


As luck would have it the GW Computer store makes its home in the same shopping center where the tour was to take place. At the back of the GW computer store is the GW Computerworks Museum. This has been on our short list of field trips so we decided today was the day!

Hello, robot made of old computer parts. It's science...no, it's art...no, it's history. So many lessons all in one exhibit.

That big gunmetal gray box they're standing in front of holds a whopping 4 Gigs of memory compliments of 1980. To put it in perspective for them I explained that the computer in my office has 1TB of memory. That means we'd have to have an additional 25 big ol' computer cabinets in my office to replace my current set-up. Neither thought that was good idea considering how messy my office is usually. 

Total geek humor. It's a cassette fossil. Huh huh. I asked J if he knew what it was and he said "something that used to play music", but it was Z that actually came up with the word "cassette". Way to make me feel old, guys. Don't y'all remember waiting by the radio for "Open Arms" by Journey to come on so you could press record even if a little of the D.J.'s voice got on the tape? Okay, maybe that was just me.

So what started out as a bust turned into quite a fun trip. We topped it off with lunch at the Chinese food buffet and that beats cafeteria food any day!