It all started at a pawn shop...

[jjdietrich]

Hi folks, my first post here!

I figured I'd tell my little story about how I've become such a fan of HP calculators, for what it's worth. Maybe some of you can do the same!

My freshman year of college I recall seeing shiny new HP-48SX's hanging in the bookstore and drooling over them. I saw one or two fellow students with one, and I was blown away by the possibilities. My trusty solar powered TI-36 had been my faithful companion since high school (which I still have), but the 48SX was in a different universe.

Like all students, I was on a shoestring budget and the possibility of buying a new one was not in the cards. Then one day I wandered into a local pawn shop...

And there in the display case was a 48SX! Clearly some other poor student needed money for food more than his/her calculator, and had done what was necessary. I still get butterflies in my stomach thinking about how it felt that I just happened to wander in there and find an essentially brand new 48SX (this was in 1991, the calculator has a 1990 serial number). So of course I bought it!

It's sitting here next to me right now, 24 years later, working as perfectly as it did that day. It was there along side me in the library and computer labs at 3am, sitting on top of pads of green engineering paper as I worked my way through school. It's funny how an object can become almost like a time machine. Just the feel of the keys brings me back to specific study sessions on campus, and literally even reminds me of specific problems and homework assignments. I'm so glad I never sold it or lost it.

I'm now almost 43 years old, more than 20 years beyond my university days. I've built up a little collection now (3-15C's from the 80's, 2-12C's from the 80's, a 32S, a 42S, a modern 35S, a modern 12C, and for fun a Swissmicros DM15), but the centerpiece is my old pawn shop 48SX!

-Jason