The Nerd Files, Volume One

[jackshoegazer]

I just remembered that when I was about twelve and had just moved to Watertown, my favorite pasttime was to go to the public library and read old newspapers on microfiche. I started in 1977, the year I was born, to see what was going on then. And from there, I traveled back in time. I read most the papers, skipping a couple days here and there as I went backward. I spent a lot of time around the World Wars and the turn of the century. I had to stop around 1885 or so because before that, the local paper was written in German.

I started this habit because you could only play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? for one hour at a time. So in between times I could sign up for an hour of Carmen on the computer, I needed something to do, so I taught myself how to load a microfiche reader.