I remember as a very young child asking my dad what he did all day at work. He told me โI work for IBM, and I fix machinesโ. The only โmachineโ I knew about was a washing machine, so thatโs what I imagined he worked on.
Not long after that, I had the opportunity to go with my dad into a large computer room, probably one of the big oil companies that were in Tulsa at the time. I remember being very impressed at all of the equipment in the computer rooms, and my dad even showed me the inside of one of them. I remember distinctly all the wires and vacuum tubes, knobs and flashing lights, the Selectric typwriters being used as consoles, and how the room smelled, the old round-reel tape drives, and the noise of the high speed impact printers. It was all totally new to me, and I donโt think I made much sense of it at that age.
My dad asked me on the way home what I though about all that, and I said something like โIt was neat-o, but where were all the โmachines?โ
I grew up, my dad retired after 32 years, I worked for IBM for 36 years (fixing machines) and retired as well. I still remember those vacuum tubes.
:):)
2001 Lance 1121 on a 2016 F450 โScuse me while I whinge.
And for all you Scooby-Doo and Yosemite Sam typesโฆโฆโฆ..Letโs Go Brandon!!!
