Russ Blakeman wrote:
>
> Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:
> > Tim, when I was in the seventh grade, due to getting most of my _real_
> > education from the library at my own pace, I wasn't counting windows.
> > There weren't enough of them. I simply kept working out new patterns
> > for counting the holes in the acoustical ceilings, since the contractors
> > had installed them unevenly and that killed _some_ of the time until the
> > bell rang.
>
> When I was in 7th grade I was pondering what the newest Terrahawks and
> Thunderbirds episode would be and what I was going to do if the Vietnam "conflict"
> went on past when I graduated high school in 1974. The only "pooters" we had then
> were some networked (if you can call it that) typing equipment and teletype
> terminals in the business classes.
Tell me about it. Congress discontinued the draft in January 1973. I
turned 18 that May. I wound up in the USAF anyway in time to be a
"Vietnam Era Veteran" (as the Human Resources paperwork puts it) due
to financial situation (call it starvation -- the USAF fed me). The
only computers I heard of before I graduated HS were those that were
used to process the tests taken with soft pencil and those that
supposedly printed the report cards. The Altair was the next year,
right about the time I enlisted (as I learned afterward).
For some reason, I never had much use for puppet shows like the
Thunderbirds -- my main love was the early anime like Astroboy,
Gigantor and Eighth Man. And of course then and forever _real_
_printed_ science fiction by Heinlein and many others.
(This is not off-topic, folks. My love of science fiction coinceded
with my love of mathematics and got me into computers seriously with
the TRS-80 that wasn't yet called the Model One after I was discharged
from the USAF [honorably after four years, the 20th anniversary was
last Friday May 8th -- coincidentally the 10th anniversary of the
death of Robert A. Heinlein {who wrote about the most _likeable_
computer in all of science fiction, reality has a _long_ way to go}],
and set out on the path that led me [collapsed and dumped me] here).
>
> High school has it's palce, just as college does. Of course if you look at the
> high schools and many colleges now you'd have to wonder why they eeven bother
> going to any classes other than home room for attendance check in.
That's why I went. Since there were legal things that could be done
to you (and/or your family) if you didn't show up. My real education
taking place elsewhere, I went to check in and look at girls -- the
fashions of the early Seventies being kind to a horny teenager.
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Wed May 13 1998 - 20:25:35 BST