Saved On Sun, Dec 15, 2024 at 11:27 AM Sentry TV via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

Excellent!Hit Print before its deleted.

On Sunday, December 15, 2024 at 11:22:45 AM EST, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

’Twas the Night Before Christmas at the Museum

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the place, not a creature was stirring, only just a Brace!

The punch cards were stacked by the Altair with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The terminals hummed with a soft, gentle glow,

While visions of BASIC danced to and fro.

With volunteers nestled snug at their screens,

Dreaming of tech from the ’70s scene.

When out from the bench there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.

Away to the Univac, I flew like a flash,

Hoping the data tapes hadn’t been trashed.

The glow of monitors cast an odd light,

Giving life to machines asleep for the night.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature drive sled and eight robotic reindeer.

With a jolly old driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

Faster than a Cray his coursers they came,

And he whistled and shouted and called them by name:

“Now Tandy! Now Apple! Now Commodore, too!

On Atari! On Osborne! On Macintosh, you!

To the top of the rack, to the end of the hall,

Now compute away, compute away all!”

As floppy disks spin when systems engage,

The relics came to life on this magical stage.

Up to the mezzanine the reindeer they flew,

With a sleigh full of parts and St. Nicholas, too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the floor,

The clacking of keyboards and drives as they roared.

As I drew in my head and turned back around,

Down the mini-computer St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed in red silicon, circuits aglow,

With wires and LEDs making him show.

A bundle of cables was flung on his back,

And he looked like a coder unloading his stack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!

His cheeks like capacitors, his nose a red cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up in geek delight,

As he gazed at the machines in the soft winter night.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his task,

Refurbishing systems—no need to ask.

He restored the old servers, fixed bugs in the code,

And breathed life anew into systems that slowed.

Then laying his finger aside of his key,

He hit “Run” on the program, delighting in glee.

Through the leaky roof, he rose to his sleigh,

Ready to spread more joy the tech-lover’s way.

He sprang to his ride, gave a shout to his team,

And away they all flew like a well-coded dream.

But I heard him exclaim, as he soared out of sight,

“Happy computing to all, and to all a good night!” :-)

On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 12:49 AM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

...

and all through the place, not a creature was stirring, only just a Brace!

Finish the poem!