I got a TRS-80 Model I Level I for Christmas in 1979. I remember upgrading it to Level II BASIC and 16K was something on the order of $250. My mother was an IBM 370 coder and she was not convinced I needed that huge amount of memory!!
I went to Atari computer camp in Asheville, NC, where I met Dr. Alan Kay, and since I knew how to code 6502 with the Assembly Cartridge, he offered me an internship when I graduated from high school. I graduated in late '83. Oops. Oh well. I went on to wrangle dual-CPU CompuPro S-100 boxes running networked with Arcnet for my 1st job.
I just Googled it and apparently my parents somehow paid an ungodly sum for me to attend that. This was held at the Asheville School. Asheville is a beautiful place, and I went back for several of the Honda Hoots held there.
One of the guys at camp with me was Italian and came over on the Concorde. One night the school cafeteria offered spaghetti and he was really looking forward to it. I warned him that 1) it was American "Italian" food and 2) it was school cafeteria food. I still remember the look on his face at first forkful... which he immediately spit out.