COMPUTER MEMORIES, Chapter 03

MY SO-CALLED EDUCATION, AND EARLY COMPUTER DAYS
I had only two complete years of High School, then received my diploma via a GED test while serving in the US Army in 1946-47. I spent a little time in classrooms at East High in Akron, Ohio, and the High School in Flora, Indiana. I remember nothing about either, so that means I learned nothing of value, or at least remember nothing of value (except I played a variety of instruments in the band at both places), while there. For a few months I attended college on the GI Bill, but I had to drop out because of problems with my eyes.

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD BAND
Since I loved playing instruments in a marching band, I can’t imagine why I don’t remember more about being a member of the Pennsylvania Railroad Band in Altoona, PA. That only lasted a very short time, how short — I don’t remember.

HIGH SCHOOL TEST
Many years later my brother Johnny returned to Cove High School in Martinsburg, PA as the District Superintendent. Just for fun he looked up my records and told me that when I took the test to go from 8th grade into High School, I had the highest score of anyone in the district, that year. Why didn’t someone tell me. I had no idea that I might have some potential. Just think, if I had gone on to college and received a good education, I could have retired at age 70, instead of age 50.

The only thing I remember about that test, is that when I climbed the stairs and entered the room where the test was to be taken, I fell immediately in love-at-first-sight with Genive. She most likely never knew that, and I haven’t had a dream about her for several years now! Come to think of it, the only other thing I remember about attending Cove High was one day, as I neared the top of the stairs, Audrey was having trouble with her garter, and I helped her fix it. Wait, yet another story. One teacher was concerned some lucky boy was going to see Mary Ellen’s panties reflected in her shiny patten leather shoes. Oh, if only I could have been that lucky boy! Mary Ellen now tells me she couldn’t afford patten leather shoes in those days. I didn’t know that, so I kept watching, just in case. You thought I learned nothing while going to school!

WORLD WAR II "INJURY"
After my older brothers left home, during World War II, I had to do the work of all of them, both at home and at the neighbor’s farms. Years later I found the Army was much easier than that. Cove High was a girls school until it snowed. During harvest time the younger boys had to replace the ones who had already left for the war. When they extended the lunch hour to two hours so there was time to play ball, the mothers would just come and pickup the boys so they could plow for two hours, while their father did something else.

I always say that I have a WW II injury. Well, since my older brothers were off fighting the war, I hurt my back working so hard on the farm. For some reason I remember that fertilizer came in 167 pound bags, and a ten gallon can of milk was rather heavy for the back of a 14 or 15 year old kid.

Brother Paul was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his heroics on Dec. 20, 1944, while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. And on Dec. 24, 1944, Brother Jesse’s ship (he was a Naval Officer) was shelling Iwo Jima, and sank two Jap ships.

Paul never talked of his heroics in WW II, and even though they lived just a couple of miles apart, Jesse never knew of Paul’s Bronze Star, and the story of the battle that he fought, until it was mentioned at Paul’s funeral.

So you can see, on those same December days I was lifting bales of hay, bags of feed, and 10 gallon cans of milk, but mine was the easier day. While my brothers fought throughout the South Pacific, and from Normandy to Germany, and more, they didn't get "injured" as badly as I did slinging hay on the farm! (While it’s true, don’t take that last sentence quite like it looks!.)

MENSA
Thirty years or so ago my wife read about the organization, Mensa. Because I had no college degree, she thought it would be advisable for me to have something like “Mensa” on my resume. She wrote to them to find what qualifications were necessary to join. We found that my Army test scores would have more than satisfied the qualifications, but then we found that a fire in 1973 at the Veteran Administration, National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis, had burned many of the Army’s records.

We made arrangements for me to spend a day at the University of Southern California taking a battery of tests. In May 1975 I received notification that my score was more than enough to meet Mensa’s needs, “… higher than 99% of the population in general would achieve on this test.” We also determined that Mensa score and a dime wouldn’t even buy a cup of coffee, but then I don’t drink coffee anyway!

GED TEST
Modesty prevents me ----- , but I may as well add another log to the fire. At Ft. Sill, Oklahoma in 1947, I had made arrangements to get a High School Diploma by taking a series of tests called GED. A few weeks after taking the test, I was called in to take it again. I just thought they had lost the other test, or something, but later I was told they had requested the re-test because they thought I had cheated. Since I hadn’t attended the classes that were taught for men who were going to take that test, they were surprised that I did so well, or more than well. The second set of tests were taken with no notice, and with no one else in the room except the person from the Education Department. Aw well.

A "TROUBLE-MAKER" RETURNS TO SCHOOL
Just for fun: Here’s a story my brother Johnny told about the meeting with the teachers the day before school started, when he became Superintendent of Schools at Martinsburg, PA. He told them that the reason he spent so much time in the principal’s office when he attended Cove High many years earlier, was because he was learning the business. He also told them they should be especially attentive to the needs of the little trouble makers that are in many classes. They need special attention, and should be treated very nicely, “ … because as Mr. Kensinger, Mr. Brumbaugh, and Miss Skyles can tell you, that little trouble maker may come back some day as your Superintendent!”