I think we are from the same era, (Pleistocene). I grew up on BASIC, FORTRAN, and punch cards, earned a PhD in Computer Science, and have been happily working on software in one form or another since I was 10, in 1967.

So I have to ask: what are you smoking?

Sure, BASIC is gone, and good riddance. But a greatly improved version of that experience is available today. If you want instant gratification from a few lines of code, then Python is definitely the way to go. It's massive libraries allow for exploration in any number of directions.

If you want to go deeper, then the best modern equivalent of assember language is the Java Virtual Machine. The layout is highly accessible, and there are all sorts of fun projects that could be done -- compiling simple languages to JVM code, maybe doing an interpreter, byte-code transformations, either directly or through aspect-oriented programming interfaces.

And if you want to go deeper still, Java will soon be open-sourced by Sun, and there are other open-source implementations. And of course there are thousands and thousands of other open-source projects to explore and tinker with.

I think you've missed the real issue: In the 1970s, if you sat down at a computer, you pretty much had to write your own software. Now, it takes an act of will to clear your mind, ignore the internet, solitaire, email, IM, and do actual work. The distractions are especially damaging to tasks requiring great immersion and concentration, such as programming and especially learning programming.