WE CALLED IT OUR... MONTHLY COMPUTER CLUB MEETING ...but I know they only came for the free pizza and beer!

Club 100 used to host a monthly computer club meeting/get together at Melo's Pizza in Pleasant Hill, CA. Members of the club were invited to spend a Saturday afternoon together for the sake of Model 100 computing fellowship. The club would pick up the tab from sales proceeds the previous month. We continued the monthly meetings for a few years until early 1995.

You couldn't really call these get-togethers meetings, however. There was no addenda, no minutes, no speaker, and no club business. What we did have was friends, computers, pizza and beer.

We never kept records of our get togethers, except for once. One day in December, several years ago, I had a birthday on a meeting date. Someone brought a camera with black and white film, and here's what happened...

Someone thought enough to shoot the Melo's Pizza Pasta sign. Guy (Gaetano) Piccolo, the owner. Guy's brother, Melo (Carmelo) Piccolo started the restaurant. Guy's a nice guy and the food is ... L E G E N D A R Y!

Melo's is well known throughout these parts and is always packed... except late Saturday mornings.

If you're ever in Pleasant Hill, stop in and eat at Melo's.

As the tables start filling up with people and computers our waitress knows exactly what to do first. She says, "Looks like you thirsty boys could use a brewski!"

Here, Tracy Allen is showing Dan Bullwinkle an extRAM installed in a Model 100 while one of many such brewski's are skillfully delivered by our waitress... who, by the way, always receives a really big tip.

A pizza magically appears, followed by more as the meeting progresses.

Can't leave the other side of the table without something to wash down the pizza. "You guy's could use your own, separate brewski." She says.

George Gates digs in, as Jon Shurtleff and Bill May look on.

What a great waitress? But oh my, the pizza is going away quickly. We'd better order another.

Oh! So that's where the pizza's going. Robert Benson, Club 100's online librarian, totally stopped computing and is scarfing down all the pizza!

War correspondent, Forrest Edwards, is telling Tracy yet, another tall tale about how Model "T" computers were used during WWII. Forrest sometimes gets his dates a little mixed up.

Thanks to the late, Forrest Edwards, we learned a lot about how journalists reported the wars in the old days, and how Model 100 computers are used by journalists, today. We miss his stories.

You know, sometimes I get the feeling that George forgot to bring his computer on purpose. Hmmm... I wonder what he came here for? (grin) George is retired from Chevron... where they teach you how to scarf benefits!

Jon looks like he's deep in thought, but then Jon always looks like he's deep in though. And, knowing Jon, he "is" always deep in thought. For heaven's sake, Jon, eat something.

Jon Shurtleff is quite the inventor. He invented and manufactures the Club 100 hard cover. And, if you take a good look at his Model 100, you'll note that he cut and hinged the LCD so it tilts up like a Model 200's LCD. Jon is also responsible for doubling the processor speed on his 100--the first turbo 100. You may ask him about it right now: jons@parcplace.com.

Click here for a full color picture of some of the gang and Jon's black, turbo Model 100 with tilt screen. Then come back here to continue the story...

Hey George, looks like you could use another beer. Here... allow me.

George likes dark beer, but as you can see, we have both regular and leaded on the table... and there's a little pizza left, too.

Looks like Roy, Ken Stein and Tracy Allen are deep into personal computing.

But Ken appears confused at Tracy's computing action. Seems Tracy has a beer in his hand and his computer is turned up-side-down. What a way to compute!

That Tracy. What a genius! He knows all the tricks of advanced personal computing methods.

Tracy may be reached at: www.emesystems.com

Both Roy and Ken have a Club 100 Power Pillow under their machines. The Power Pillow allows you to compute for about 200 hours. And, in the lower left is another shot of Jon Shurtleffs black, tilt-screen, turbo Model 100.

Hey guys, keep one foot on the floor!

Jon scarfs another piece of pizza, I pour Robert a refill, while Ken, the ever vigilant attorney, looks on.

It's okay, Ken. We have designated drivers. Besides, Robert's driving daze were stopped by the Berkeley PD in the '60s when his hippie van ended up in a ditch--or at least I think that's the way Robert told the story.

Tracy brought some chocolate cake with a candle for my birthday. The event was quite a surprise.

Everyone had their cake and ate it, too.

Thank you my friend.

Say, have you ever had chocolate cake on pizza?

Once again, we jumped into a computing project, something for Dan, but it looks like Roy, is packed up ready to go.

Roy can't party... ahmmm... I mean compute like he used to.

Looks like everyone had a good time. Dan got his computing problem solved, Tracy's pleased about life in general, Ken is thinking about his next law case, and Jon's till deep in thought but not hungry any longer.

And what about Bill?

Oh well, you see Bill still can't remember why he came except that he had some great laughs, watched personal computing in action, had some beer and pizza and will be driven home when his wife returns from shopping at Macy's.

Oh my goodness... Edwards is still droning on about computing during the war... bla, bla, bla... "Yeah, we used to save our stories on paper tape. We were under fire, you know. For a fast save, we used a tommy gun. It was fast. Real fast. Had a hard time loading the story back in, but it was war! Then there was the time back in 1812 when laptop computers were.. ahmmm... where was I?"

...and for heaven's sake, Robert!!! Did you order another pitcher of beer? Say good night, Robert.

Maybe if you come to Pleasant Hill, we'll call yet another get together down at Melo's, but please, don't let on that it's anything other than one of those boring computer club meetings.

Hey! ...that sign is supposed to read "host."

I need a beer ...where's the waitress?

PostNote: All of the references to beer are grossly over stated. I had too few pictures to wrap a story around so I lied. Everyone acted responsibly--we never had a problem. And in fact, most of the pitchers are actually filled with Coke or Root Beer. I'm a Root Beer fan!

Also, a big thanks goes to Drew Blanchar for taking the pictures. I think the reason we took pictures at all, let alone in B&W, was to send into Portable 100 Magazine for a story.

The Original Laptop Computer . . . 1983