(As the result of a personal request from AUDREY CURNUTT, CapitalFest Chairman, the following description of the history of CATS is submitted:)
The Lanham Sinclair Users Group (L.SUG) was a direct antecedent of today’s Capital Area Timex/Sinclair users group (CATS). LSUG was the product of some enterprising work on the part of two Prince George’s county students: Charley Dickson, then a 10th-grader at DuVal high school, and Cora Dickson, then a sixth-grader at C.T. Reed elementary school. Cora had learned BASIC in classes given at the Howard B. Owens science center, situated conveniently between DuVal and C.T. Reed. Charley was a high school intern at the Owens science center, working after school on electronics for new science displays.
Dawning of the PC
In early 1982, as the personal computer age began to dawn, Cora and Charley seriously began looking around for ways to become involved in home computing.
Charley found an ad in an electronics magazine for a ZX-81 kit, priced at $99. Cora agreed to tap her small savings account to pay for it, if Charley would put it together.
Soon a package arrived from a vendor in New England, and in two evenings Charley had the ZX-81 assembled and running. Both spent the spring and summer learning the ideosyncracies of Sinclair BASIC, developing some simple games using the ZX-8l’s 1K memory, and even doing using it for some math homework. Charley also eventually connected a full-size keyboard to the dimunitive device, using a personally-designed interface.
As recipients of SYNC magazine, they noticed the existence of Sinclair user groups around the country, although there were none in the Washington, D.C. area.
Let’s Do a Users Group!
The idea of a users group consisting mostly of students interested in Sinclair hardware and software seemed quite attractive. It could be a way to compare experiences and thoughts about numerous of topics relating to the world of Sinclair.
Based on this concept, flyers were produced and distributed announcing an organizational meeting in the conference room of the Greenbelt library. Word got around, however, and although the meeting was limited mostly to adults, attendees came from as far away as Potomac, MD.
Cora started out as chairman of LSUG, because she had paid for the computer. Charley was her executive backup and produced articles and drawings for the club’s newsletter, “THE COMPUTERIST”, which Cora edited.
Larry Fox at the Maryland Book Exchange was a great supporter of LSUG from the beginning. At its apogee, his College Park Sinclair shop had one of the finest walk-in selections of hardware. software and publications to be found on the east coast.
Membership cards were printed and handed out. Cora’s name and address began to appear in new lists of users groups. Letters and calls began to arrive from all parts of the country as well as overseas. Even last month a person called who had gotten Cora’s name out of an old book and who was amazed to find that Sinclair support still existed.
Just as things were getting off to a slow, measured start, a small item appeared in the Washington POST describing LSUG, and immediately the phone went crazy. Attendance soared dramatically during the rest of 1982 and early 1983. The introduction of the TS-1000 during this period vastly increased the Sinclair user-base in the D.C. area, as well as all over the country.
As a spinoff, it was learned there was a group of ham radio enthusiasts which had been convening regularly at Phil Russo’s home to pool interests in Sinclair computers. They were members of a large, Hyattsville-based amateur radio club which had a long-standing interest in electronics and low-cost computing. The subset of that club which was interested in Sinclairs was called “PG-ZUG“.
LSUG and PG-ZUG eventually tried to to merge some activities while retaining their original identities. The LSUG meetings were moved to DuVal high school to accommodate the crowd, and PG-ZUG held alternate monthly meetings at the New Carrollton library.
Getting Wild
But by this time things things were exceeding even the wildest of expectations for a users group based on what many regarded as a toy. Also, what had been envisioned as an association of teenage students had become a group of adults worried about increasingly complex issues.
So LSUG dissolved in April, 1983, and returned all money that had been collected to that point. Cora and Charley continued on with a small “Sinclair Juniors” group that met occasionally for about a year at the Greenbelt library. However, travel problems proved too difficult for teenagers not yet old enough to drive.
But a kernel of leadership had formed around the PG-ZUG nucleus, and eventually CATS was suggested as a name more descriptive of the regional nature of the group. Direction was provided by leaders such as Jules Gesang, Jim Wallace, Phil Russo, Mark Fisher and Sam Lefkov.
Before 1983 was over, Timex made a big holiday entry into the home computer market and CATS announced its new junta, headed by president Ned Beeler. Following him came a succession of equally outstanding presidents: Mark Fisher, John Conger, Tom Bent – and most recently – Bill Barnhart. Support for these unselfish leaders came from the likes of Ruth Fegley, our peerless treasurer for many years; George Rey, coordinator of presentations: Bob and Audrey Curnutt, executive committee hosts and members: Ted Osheroff, keeper of the by-laws: Sarah Fisher, treasurer and newsletter editor: and Mike Warmick, TV cinematographer of CATS activities.
Newsletter editors over the years make up an elite group composed of Mark and Sarah Fisher, Jules Gesang, John Riley, and Vernon Smith, all of whose whose efforts have raised the CATS newsletter to unparalled heights of national pre-eminence.
Tom Bent and his out-of-this-world hardware deals have made CATS the envy of every micro-electronic fanatic in the D.C. area.
Under the sponsorship of CATS, brief computer literacy courses have been given to 10-to-14 year olds at seven P.G. county and two Montgomery county libraries. A similar course for adults was well received.
CATS has also given awards in the past to students from school science fairs in this area who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the use of personal computer technology.
In addition, an annual fall picnic in Greenbelt park has become a social highlight for CATS enthusiasts who shed their bits-and-bytes orientation for at least part of one day to have a relaxing and enjoyable time with friends and family.
For the future, CATS can only hope to strengthen and build upon the base it has already established. Close to 1,000 computerists have passed through the portals of CATS during the past seven years: their ghosts should not be forgotten.
We need to assure that the spirit. enthusiasm, and sense of mission that a couple of young students brought to the birth of this entity do not get lost in the misty meanderings of our future.