Chances are, you’ve probably been asked to do something beyond the scope of your resources or abilities.

In this story, a volunteer “teacher” comes up with a funny method of PC MC.

Let’s zoom in…

“We’re going to have to throw them away”

In the late 90s, I volunteered at a small private school.

They had little money for “extras” like computers.

Or computer teachers.

I don’t know much about computers but I knew how to plug them in and I know how to put one together…if you gave me all the parts.

I mean I can plug stuff in. Will this resume land him a computer job?

So naturally, I got asked to be the director of the “computer lab”.

It had two very old computers.

And naturally, it was a volunteer job.

I had very little money and a lot of time.

Yep. Although not so much a job as a task… how will he get paid?

They knew that I wanted a job.

They told me that after I “build it up”, they would put a salary in the budget.

I taught classes the difference between the components, some file structure, some BASIC, some DOS, and how rebooting your computer usually solves whatever problems you have.

The concept of “drivers.”

The thing is, the director of the school hated fundraising.

So my salary never got added to the budget.

And the director often kept himself busy doing other things.

Useless things.

Sounds about right. Something tells me we might have a revenge of the nerd on our hands.

One sunny morning he finds me and tells me to wish him luck.

“If today goes right, we’re going to have a huge computer lab!”

He comes back from his meeting with a huge smile. “I did it! I convinced a bank to donate to us their old computers!”

Ok. Great.

Now I have to set up and maintain 50 new (for us) computers.

I can’t wait.

The computers got delivered the next week.

All terminals. These were Bank Computers.

Uh-oh. I think his technical expertise is gonna be strained on this one.

I had no idea how to get them running.

They didn’t have hard drives. Or operating systems.

The keyboard and mouse ports were different.

They were not the standard ps/2 (at the time).

I think they somehow connected to a server, which did not get donated.

Their monitors only did text. No graphics.

What every school kid wants. So basically these were the worst computers ever, right?

They were useless to us.

We needed something to run America Online. Encarta. Maybe Simcity. You know, educational stuff.

I had no idea how to get these to work.

Yep.

I tried asking the director, telling him that the 50 computers were useful…

He got super annoyed.

“I’m sure they can be helpful in some way. They must be worth something. Figure it out…because if you can’t we’re going to have to throw them away.”

Uh maybe this is where OP says, “OK then pay me?” Let’s see…

He thought he was threatening me.

He did not think I’d throw out 50 computers. After all, he worked hard to get them.

I did not hesitate at all.

My next class, I had screwdrivers for everyone.

We disassembled everything.

If it had a screw we unscrewed it.

The class figured out what each piece was.

And then the class activity was to take the pieces to the dumpster.

Sounds like a great use of time. But how will the director react…

By the end of the day, there was nothing left.

The next day the director asked me where the computers were.

“Oh, you were right! They were very useful. The students took them apart, learned all about the different components, and then threw them out. Just like you said we should!”

His face turned all sorts of colors. And he stormed out.

By turning fifty shades of red. But does he still come out on top?

What I didn’t tell him… is that I saved the RAM from the garbage.

I mean, after all, it was in the garbage. Right?

And sold them on the online classifieds (Remember Yahoo Classifieds?) for $20 apiece.

Finally, some backpay!

There were two in each computer….so I got $2,000.

I guess they were useful after all.

He figured out a clever way to get paid.

What do the comments think of this clickbait and switch?

This person defends his right to the RAM.

One poster either has a similar story… or a personal connection!

Someone else has a similar Robin Hood, Men in Tech tale.

Another person says, ethically gray… and I like it.

Someone else says those computers were doomed to fail.

One man’s trash is another man’s internet resale treasure.

That’s the way of the world.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.