The Sad Faced Mac that Shaped Who I Am

When CompUSA Gave Me a Free TV and Apple Gave Me a Sad Mac

Back when computers came in giant boxes and writing checks for large purchases was perfectly normal, I bought my first computer at Staples. Much like today, I was a sucker for slick marketing, and a late-night TV commercial introduced me to the Macintosh Performa 6260. To really drive home how long ago this was, a monitor and a printer were included.

I didn’t know much about computers back then, but this thing made me feel like I was stepping into the future. Never mind that the CRT monitor and the CRT television sitting directly next to it on my bureau were the exact same size.

That setup served me well for about three years. It even survived my brief tryst with college in Florida. Sort of. When I shipped it back home, UPS did what UPS does, and the monitor arrived completely shattered on the inside.

So I did what any reasonable person would do: I took it down to a local TV repair shop. Two weeks later, after a careful operation involving glue, patience, and probably more hope than science, my Frankenstein machine was alive again.

That wouldn’t be the only time that monitor made its way to that repair shop. Maybe that says more about repairability then versus now, but after the third time its insides collapsed and the screen went dark, I finally admitted it was time to move on.

Besides, I had been seeing whispers on my AOL WebCrawler that a new Mac was on the horizon. And soon enough, I became the owner of an iMac.

But man, what a headache it was to get my hands on it. Before Apple Stores existed, you had to deal with whatever big-box retailer happened to have Macs in stock. Best Buy had just opened in my area, so I went there.

After about 45 minutes of staring wistfully at what I hoped would be my future iMac—sitting on a shelf just out of reach—while employees walked past me without making eye contact or offering help, I gave up and diverted to the CompUSA next door.

CompUSA had what could only be described as a mountain of iMacs. An entire pyramid of them, stacked right on the floor. I picked my machine (I chose Blueberry, though honestly, that may have been the only color they had) and headed straight for the register.

As I was about to pay, the cashier paused and looked at me, confused. “Where’s your TV?” he asked. I laughed and told him it was sitting on a bureau back home. He shook his head. “No—you’re supposed to get a free TV when you buy the iMac.”

As I was rolling through the exit with an iMac and a brand-new TV in my cart, I was absolutely convinced the alarms would go off and I’d be arrested for stealing. They didn’t. I’ll always remember the day I bought my iMac.

Man, I miss CompUSA.

Like my Performa before it, my iMac lasted me quite a while. I was genuinely sad when it finally died. If memory serves, the screen went dark after flashing a tiny icon—something like the Finder face, only with a frown. A little sad Mac staring back at me before fading out for good.

I never really processed the grief from that moment.

It’s hard to believe I spent the better part of a decade completely removed from Apple products. I dipped a toe back in around 2007 with an iPod nano I got as a Christmas gift. Looking back, that might have set the wheels in motion to make me what I am today: the ideal Apple consumer.

An iPhone (well, two actually). Two Apple Watches. A Mac, a MacBook, three iPads, two pairs of AirPods, an Apple TV, Apple One, and AppleCare for way more devices than any reasonable person should own. I’m pretty sure there’s still a pair of EarPods floating around somewhere.

They really saw me coming.