I'm glad I'm not the only "oldie" here. (51 next February.) I started out in electronics (hardware for you programmers) during the vacuum tube days. Then electronics became solid state and digital. At this time there wasn't such a thing as "software". The program was hardwired.
My first real programming was on a Vic20 which I think was the forerunner to the Commador 64. Since then I've learned all the DOS basics, and several main-frame languages. HP MPE, AS/400 RPG, etc. and am now learning Visual Basic.
One language I learned which hasn't been mentioned is Forth. I don't know if it's still used very much but it was used for programs that needed to control "analog" devices (periphials for you programmers).
I don't make any money for writing programs per se. I write programs in Visual Basic to download data from the company's computer and then e-mail to other department heads in Excel or Access. They prefer this to going through IT which gives them printouts (piles of paper).
Al.