STROLLING DOWN MEMORY LANE, ABOUT 65 YEARS! ~ Beautiful
memories have a way of popping up when least expected. Over the years I
have noticed that either my arms are getting shorter or my legs are
getting longer - for I have to strain to put on my shoes and socks now.
Solution? I have a shoeshine box which has been in my dressing area for many decades, and I use it to shine my shoes. Hmmm! Why not use it to reach my socks? Wow, what a genius thought - and it works beautifully.
So how did this shoeshine box come to be setting in my dressing area all these decades? That is the beautiful memory I mentioned earlier. June 1958 I left the Air Force, in July I joined Burroughs Corporation in their mainframe computer division Electrodata, and in August 1958 I began working in their Sierra Madre (Pasadena) B-220 Computer System Test department.
In 1959 I transferred into their Field Engineering department and was assigned as a Field Engineer at the Norfolk Naval Supply Depot. Nine months later I was transferred to work out of the Burroughs Washington DC office.
And that is when my family and I leased the tri-level townhouse in the photo below. We lived in the unit on the right and a family with two young boys about 9-10 years old lived in the other unit. The father worked in a government office in DC and the mother worked in an office in Alexandria, Virginia.
The owner of my unit had decided that when his son went away to college, he did not need all that space - and that is when my family and I responded to his ad.
How well I remember, we had just moved up from Norfolk, were staying in a motel in Virginia searching the want ads, and the day we called the owner it was raining. But we braved the rain, met with the owner in Alexandria, and had a new home. God works miracles, large and even small ones like helping us find that nice new home.
Both townhouses had a basement level with a door opening into the back yard - and in my unit the owner had made it a nicely done recreation room with a ping-pong table. In the back was a work bench which I found useful. I really enjoyed the company of the two boys and one day we decided to do a project. With spare lumber available we decided to make a shoe shine box. And what you see below is that 1961 finished project, which in my more mature years also functions as a short arm solution.
Looking back to July 1958, I arrived in Los Angeles on my 21st birthday, July 23, 1958. America was just coming out of a bad two year recession and just starting to hire again - my timing for leaving the Air Force and joining Burroughs was perfect, for if I had not taken an early out of the Air Force and had stayed in until my full four years was up in 1959, I would have missed this opportunity at Burroughs. Personally I believe that was God working in my behalf.
I started work at Burroughs on Monday, August 4th. To get the job I interviewed with Chuck Hill, Test Department Manager. When I went to Personnel to do all my paperwork, the lady processing me told me, "Chuck must have really liked you, for he has not given anyone else that high a starting pay." Are you ready for this? That top pay was $2.15 an hour!
Today "May I take your order?" young people get $15 an hour and in California that will soon be $20 an hour! And that is why so many stores are closing or moving out of California! Recently our son took Dory and me to Carl's Jr. for lunch. We each had just a regular one patty cheeseburger, small fries, and a drink. The bill came to $43! Can you believe that?
Back to my main thought. During the nine months I was assigned to Norfolk Naval Supply Depot as part of the Burroughs support team (4 Field Engineers, 2 Programmers) - Chuck Hill came to the Washington DC office as our new District Field Service Manager. Once again he was my boss.
In 1961-62 I was lead Field Engineer on several systems in the Washington DC/Virginia area. Our Burroughs Field Engineering team in Washington DC was like a close family. Chuck Hill was our boss, but he was more like one of the guys - and just about every Friday we all gathered at the large home of Dave & Judy Lowther in Virginia for a "big family party."
Believe it or not, at that time I actually missed California. Of course that was the California of the 1960s, not the Woke Liberal Left "dark blue" California of this 2020 decade. And at times in our office conversations I mentioned that I did miss California. Hard to believe today, but that was a different California.
Late in 1962 our townhouse owner notified us that he would need his unit again for his son was coming home from college - so we had to find another place to call home. That very week, Wednesday, I was in our district office and Chuck Hill told me, "Bill, they need someone in the Los Angeles office. Do you want the position?"
I told him, "Let me talk with my wife." Thursday I went to the office and told Chuck, "Yes, the timing is perfect and if we need to find a new home, it might as well be in Southern California." Friday the company had an expense check for my travel expenses, Saturday Bekins movers picked up our furniture, and Sunday we were driving back to Los Angeles!"
The previous Sunday we had no idea of moving to California, or anywhere else. All that happened in just one week!
I called my mom in Alabama and told her we were moving back to California. She told me, "Come home for a visit first." And I had to tell her, "Mom, too late, we are already driving toward Los Angeles." Yes, it all happened that fast. How is that for expediency?
Back in Los Angeles I was assigned to a B-220 system in the downtown area. About two months later I got a phone call from Chuck Hill. He had left Burroughs and accepted a position with Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in Canoga Park, California. His job was to organize a Test Department for R-W's new milspec minicomputer, the AN/UYK-1, a computer designed to be used in submarines and other sea-going vessels.
And Chuck wanted me to join him in this new venture. It took me about five seconds, or less, to say, "YES!" So in my first three jobs after leaving the Air Force, Chuck Hill was my boss.
Burroughs threatened to sue Chuck and me, saying that we had arranged all this just to have Burroughs foot the bill for transferring me back to California. Which was not true, for after almost three years on the East Coast, I was ready for California. And of course, Burroughs never went through with that threat.
But thinking about it in later years, it did seem very convenient that Burroughs needed a Field Engineer in Los Angeles - and out of so many qualified people all across America, probably some already in Los Angeles - why was the job offered to me, way out in Washington DC?
Did Chuck really arrange all this just so he could hire me in Los Angeles? I suppose I will never know, but it does kind of make my chest protrude a wee bit, thinking that Chuck respected my abilities that much, if he actually did make these very convenient arrangements.
And that is the tale of how Bill Gray solved his short arm problem!
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Solution? I have a shoeshine box which has been in my dressing area for many decades, and I use it to shine my shoes. Hmmm! Why not use it to reach my socks? Wow, what a genius thought - and it works beautifully.
So how did this shoeshine box come to be setting in my dressing area all these decades? That is the beautiful memory I mentioned earlier. June 1958 I left the Air Force, in July I joined Burroughs Corporation in their mainframe computer division Electrodata, and in August 1958 I began working in their Sierra Madre (Pasadena) B-220 Computer System Test department.
In 1959 I transferred into their Field Engineering department and was assigned as a Field Engineer at the Norfolk Naval Supply Depot. Nine months later I was transferred to work out of the Burroughs Washington DC office.
And that is when my family and I leased the tri-level townhouse in the photo below. We lived in the unit on the right and a family with two young boys about 9-10 years old lived in the other unit. The father worked in a government office in DC and the mother worked in an office in Alexandria, Virginia.
The owner of my unit had decided that when his son went away to college, he did not need all that space - and that is when my family and I responded to his ad.
How well I remember, we had just moved up from Norfolk, were staying in a motel in Virginia searching the want ads, and the day we called the owner it was raining. But we braved the rain, met with the owner in Alexandria, and had a new home. God works miracles, large and even small ones like helping us find that nice new home.
Both townhouses had a basement level with a door opening into the back yard - and in my unit the owner had made it a nicely done recreation room with a ping-pong table. In the back was a work bench which I found useful. I really enjoyed the company of the two boys and one day we decided to do a project. With spare lumber available we decided to make a shoe shine box. And what you see below is that 1961 finished project, which in my more mature years also functions as a short arm solution.
Looking back to July 1958, I arrived in Los Angeles on my 21st birthday, July 23, 1958. America was just coming out of a bad two year recession and just starting to hire again - my timing for leaving the Air Force and joining Burroughs was perfect, for if I had not taken an early out of the Air Force and had stayed in until my full four years was up in 1959, I would have missed this opportunity at Burroughs. Personally I believe that was God working in my behalf.
I started work at Burroughs on Monday, August 4th. To get the job I interviewed with Chuck Hill, Test Department Manager. When I went to Personnel to do all my paperwork, the lady processing me told me, "Chuck must have really liked you, for he has not given anyone else that high a starting pay." Are you ready for this? That top pay was $2.15 an hour!
Today "May I take your order?" young people get $15 an hour and in California that will soon be $20 an hour! And that is why so many stores are closing or moving out of California! Recently our son took Dory and me to Carl's Jr. for lunch. We each had just a regular one patty cheeseburger, small fries, and a drink. The bill came to $43! Can you believe that?
Back to my main thought. During the nine months I was assigned to Norfolk Naval Supply Depot as part of the Burroughs support team (4 Field Engineers, 2 Programmers) - Chuck Hill came to the Washington DC office as our new District Field Service Manager. Once again he was my boss.
In 1961-62 I was lead Field Engineer on several systems in the Washington DC/Virginia area. Our Burroughs Field Engineering team in Washington DC was like a close family. Chuck Hill was our boss, but he was more like one of the guys - and just about every Friday we all gathered at the large home of Dave & Judy Lowther in Virginia for a "big family party."
Believe it or not, at that time I actually missed California. Of course that was the California of the 1960s, not the Woke Liberal Left "dark blue" California of this 2020 decade. And at times in our office conversations I mentioned that I did miss California. Hard to believe today, but that was a different California.
Late in 1962 our townhouse owner notified us that he would need his unit again for his son was coming home from college - so we had to find another place to call home. That very week, Wednesday, I was in our district office and Chuck Hill told me, "Bill, they need someone in the Los Angeles office. Do you want the position?"
I told him, "Let me talk with my wife." Thursday I went to the office and told Chuck, "Yes, the timing is perfect and if we need to find a new home, it might as well be in Southern California." Friday the company had an expense check for my travel expenses, Saturday Bekins movers picked up our furniture, and Sunday we were driving back to Los Angeles!"
The previous Sunday we had no idea of moving to California, or anywhere else. All that happened in just one week!
I called my mom in Alabama and told her we were moving back to California. She told me, "Come home for a visit first." And I had to tell her, "Mom, too late, we are already driving toward Los Angeles." Yes, it all happened that fast. How is that for expediency?
Back in Los Angeles I was assigned to a B-220 system in the downtown area. About two months later I got a phone call from Chuck Hill. He had left Burroughs and accepted a position with Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in Canoga Park, California. His job was to organize a Test Department for R-W's new milspec minicomputer, the AN/UYK-1, a computer designed to be used in submarines and other sea-going vessels.
And Chuck wanted me to join him in this new venture. It took me about five seconds, or less, to say, "YES!" So in my first three jobs after leaving the Air Force, Chuck Hill was my boss.
Burroughs threatened to sue Chuck and me, saying that we had arranged all this just to have Burroughs foot the bill for transferring me back to California. Which was not true, for after almost three years on the East Coast, I was ready for California. And of course, Burroughs never went through with that threat.
But thinking about it in later years, it did seem very convenient that Burroughs needed a Field Engineer in Los Angeles - and out of so many qualified people all across America, probably some already in Los Angeles - why was the job offered to me, way out in Washington DC?
Did Chuck really arrange all this just so he could hire me in Los Angeles? I suppose I will never know, but it does kind of make my chest protrude a wee bit, thinking that Chuck respected my abilities that much, if he actually did make these very convenient arrangements.
And that is the tale of how Bill Gray solved his short arm problem!
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Click on the image to enlarge:
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