I remember leaning BASIC on an Apple 2 in middle school, PASCAL on an Apple 2e in high school, but I didn't get my own computer until a Macintosh when I went to law school. I never had to write papers in college but I remember a few friends having the computers you described here. It's really amazing that our smart phones are so tremendously more powerful than those early computers and yes we have a lot to be thankful for