Lonnie Mimms has a massive collection of vintage computers he keeps outside of Atlanta.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Mr Mimms likes being called a nerd.
2 He regrets throwing away some computers.
3 He was determined to start a collection from the very beginning.
4 At some stage Mr Mimms considered that computers reflected the way society was changing.
5 He has been offered $1m for his collection.
6 None of his children has inherited his passion for collecting.
7 His family considers him eccentric, to say the least.
8 Mr Mimms has a computer museum.
I used to be teased for being a nerd. Now I definitely view it as a compliment. If I use one of my old computers that still run, I can't even explain the emotion that I'm feeling. It's more than reminiscing. It's a very strong memory retrieval. I never threw away any of the computers I had. And it ended up becoming a collection without consciously collecting them.
You wake up one day and you've got 15 of these things in the basement or your bedroom or whatever. It just hit me that these were important devices and that this was the beginning of a whole change in society.
At first when he was telling me about his collection, I thought, yeah, he's a collector. But then when I saw it…
Old computers are fascinating because there is so much variation. In the early days, there wasn't a common platform. It was like beta and VHS, but on steroids. And that just made things a lot more interesting. The collection at this point in time… it's very hard to say what it would be worth. But I mean, it would have to be over a million dollars. I probably have that in it, maybe even more. None of my three sons are collectors. They must have gotten their mother's genes in that regard. I think within one family, I may be enough of that.
What does your family think about your obsession?
Well, the nice word is eccentric. We've created an Apple pop up exhibit at King's Market Shopping Center in a former CompUSA building. If there was such a thing as an inanimate object having a personality and having charisma, then Apple is off the chart. Let's show them where it came from because the history is going to be important. At some point, we look back and go why didn't we save that? Where can I get one of those? Anything that is in the collection, no matter how primitive to a previous generation, it would be magic.
I can't wait to see the end result. It's going to take a couple of years. It has taken many to get to where he is now. And I just can't wait to see the end result.
It's never complete. A collection… a collection is never complete. The universe of computers is big enough. that I don't see it ever being finished. My goal now is to have a museum that will outlast me… you know, that will be more of a legacy.
Key:
1T 2F 3F 4T 5F 6T 7T 8F
