The first time I ever went to a bowling alley, I decided to play pinball rather than bowl all day. Got good at it too. Hold that thought.
As for the CB part? In Spring 1981, A high school friend of mine was selling his CB for $40. I planned to get it, but since I didn't have a car, I would need a power supply. I figured I knew enough to make an old model train transformer into something that could power a 12-volt CB without blowing it up, so off to Radio Shack for parts.
While there, I noticed some kids playing video games on a TRS-80 Color Computer. One of them was a pinball game. But not just an ordinary pinball game--you could program your own game, moving the bumpers and such around. So I hung around awhile, and eventually got hooked, going over there after school and on weekends. I learned to program in BASIC not too long after that, becoming the "resident expert" by summer.
The management generally didn't mind, unlike that Apple place in town. They probably figured that having kids around the computer all day helped sell computers. Maybe it did, I don't know.
The Extended Color BASIC on the Coco was relatively easy to program. The machine featured high resolution graphics (up to 256 x 192), as well as lower resolutions with more colors (There were a few modes, called "semigraphics", that required machine language programming, but allowed up to 16 colors on the screen in high-res!). Sound capabilities in BASIC allowed one note at a time (the "PLAY" command had a greater range than the "SOUND" command), but the sound was produced by a powerful 6-bit digital-analog converter that was capable of much more than that (the "Music" cartridge allowed two notes simultaneously, and some of the game cartridges even had speech!). The text screen was usually black on green, but with some sharp programming, a limited number of other combinations (green on black, black on orange, or orange on black) were possible.
When I got tired of programming, there were always computer games. Not quite the selection that the Apple or even the original, black-and-white TRS-80's had (which I also fooled around with) . But plenty nonetheless.
And then there were other neato toys, like the Realistic MG-1 Synthesizer...
Even when I got my own computer in late 1981, I would still hang out at the local Radio Shack, just for the camaraderie. I probably hung around there more than I really should have, but it was fun and I learned a lot.
Being the "resident hacker" meant lots of other attention too, like the occasional job offer. One day, an insurance agent came by, and was so impressed with a program I had written, he offered me a job right there on the spot. I was flattered, but unready (it would have been a long commute on a bike anyway). I did accept a later offer by a local computer consultant, though.
There was a management change in Summer 1982, with the new management somewhat less tolerant of us "high school hackers". By that time, I was doing more computing with my TI 99/4A at home, so I quit spending so much time at Radio Shack by Fall 1982.
I didn't really think much more about the Color Computer until November 1990, when I was at a local flea market. I was looking for cheap amateur radio gear, but I ran across a used Color Computer for $10 or $20. Wow, I thought. This computer used to cost about $600 new back in 1981, and I can have one now for pocket money? Of course I bought it, and I started down the path of becoming a vintage computer collector...