2/ I would spend hours copying BASIC scripts from magazines and then days finding an errant typo to get it to work.
I had no hard drive at first.
It cost over $5000 (14K now) from the IBM store (near Tri-County Mall, Cincinnati, Ohio)
I used part of a court settlement from being hit by a car in 1978 when I was 8 to buy it.
I remember going into the savings and loan with my grandmother to get the money. At like 14, I felt big having a wad of cash, and even bigger, spending it at the IBM store