By Kiera Reilly, C’93, and Caren Lissner, C’93
You may have noticed that our weekly reunion countdown took a bit of a summer break (senioritis perhaps?). But it is August and as children around the country start or prepare to start their school year, the Class of 1993 is gearing up for the year ahead and the planning for our 25th Reunion in May!
We thought a re-boot of our countdown was in order, and what better way to re-boot than by looking back at the machines we re-booted at Penn – our very own computers! For many of us, we arrived at Penn with typewrites (like me) and no personal computer. Papers were written on computers borrowed from the few hall-mates that had them or in the computer labs around campus. We toted our floppy disks in our back-packs and popped them in the computers whenever we needed to work.
Classmate Caren Lissner shared a photo of her college computer and memories of her first computer purchase – a Macintosh.
Caren Lissner’s Macintosh Classic II from her senior year at Penn.
Caren’s recollection:
By the end of senior year, around 1993, I’d saved just enough money to buy a Macintosh Classic II from the Penn computer store at a discounted student rate (it was something like $1,100). I had always used the campus computer rooms and libraries to type papers, so I was glad to finally have my own machine so I could work on resumes. The computer moved with me to Hoboken after college, and I ended up writing my first published novel on it. I loved my little Mac even though I finally bought a a Dell around 1999 and put it away in storage. Now it’s in a closet, and I’m never giving it away (but I should probably clean it up a little).
Caren Lissner’s floppy disks
Did you have a PC at Penn? Did you arrive on campus with it freshman year or did you purchase it while you were a student? Do you still have any of your floppy disks?
Penn Class of 1993 25th Reunion Countdown
The weekend of June 16-17, 2017, marked 47 weeks until the 25th Reunion of the Penn Class of 1993 (May 11 – 14, 2018)!
Join us we count down the weeks to our reunion #93tothe25th:
- Do you have old photos or mementos from our time at Penn? Photos of Spring Fling? Football at Franklin Field? Classes at DRL? We are taking a trip down memory lane and would love for you to share your memories with our class in a future post. Please email us upenn1993@gmail.com!
- Join our reunion committee – email Lisa Grabelle at lisagrabelle@yahoo.com.
- Follow us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.
- Classmates are invited to join our Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
Important hotel update! Overwhelming response from our great class has sold out the Downtown Marriott Class of 1993 room block for Saturday night. Here are alternatives if you are planning the Saturday night stay. We recommend booking asap! Please see our class website for additional details:
1. Call the Downtown Marriott directly and book by phone under the “UPenn Alumni Weekend 2018” room block. Call (800) 320-5744 (for international classmates, call (215) 625-2900)
2. Book the Downtown Marriott on-line but select “Attendee” from the drop-down menu
3. Book at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel room block which is directly across the street and $279/night
4. Book at the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown room block which is just 2 blocks away and $244/night
Frankly Penn 