My Story
My Story of Who Am I would fill hundreds of pages if I wrote it all! This is a memoir of one segment of my life. As much as I want to say, “I am this lady in red”, like Pinocchio, my nose might grow if I did! Anyway, she is the closest picture I could find to present an attractive image of me!! Geez, I must watch this growing nose! The truth is, I’m a teeny bit older, and a smidgen shorter. I do believe that I am a few years wiser than that beautiful lady, because she is so very young!!!
My six gorgeous children gave me 13 gorgeous grandchildren! Passing down so much “gor-jus-tivity” doesn’t leave much for oneself!! When I learned about life, they skipped telling me not to pass down my gorgeousness!! Hey, I’m as happy as a lark and have all my faculties. What more can anyone want?!
If my hubby were still with us, he would fudge it and agree with all I said. Oh, how much I loved that man! There’s more about me, but I’ll let you read it, if you like. Or just go and surf my menu on the left for what’s new, free, fun, healthy, pays you, or is simply amazing!
My Computer Career
I am a Marketer! This opportunity I found in retirement. Wish I found it years earlier. I worked for a computer firm in Princeton for much of my working life and I was also a part-time Mary Kay Consultant and Director, with a Mary Kay Red Firenze. That computer firm is where I thought I learned almost everything about computers. Well, back then, I did know a lot for the times, but far from enough and never everything. I was Supervisor for the three-shift Data Entry Department. Our Department’s responsibility meant getting all the work for 31 banks keypunched and verified in time for our computer to process overnight. We continually sent batches of punched cards to our Computer Department. Banks paid us for our record of always being accurate and on time.
Did you know one mainframe computer back then took up an entire 50% of a company’s building? Our firm processed all daily, over-the-counter transactions for 31 banks up and down the East Coast. That meant all canceled checks, deposits, payments of all kinds had to be picked up by our drivers. Then our company processed it all overnight and delivered it back to every bank in the morning before they opened their vaults and doors for the business day.
Computer Processing
All other Bank work was completed during the following day shift. Loan Accounts, Christmas Clubs, Vacation Clubs, Notes, Mortgages, Treasury Bonds, Savings of all kinds etc. were updated daily on a one-day delay.
The process for all of it was logistics from pickup to processing and delivery. At the arrival of each bank’s work, keypunching and key-verifying all data in binary code on cards began. As batches of cards were ready, a card-reader fed the information into the Mainframe for processing. Sometime in the late 70s, keypunching became obsolete. Information was now entered at key stations, transferred to disc and from disc to tape. These key stations are similar, yet different from the later upgrades to individual computers. but its versatility had many limitations. The key station was designed for certain data and had a brief life.
All data transfers from keystations went to a very large disc housed in what looked like a big desk. From the disc, we captured everything onto a magnetic tape by way of a teletype machine for computer processing. When the computer read the tape, its major printer spit out the hundreds of pages of reports. That was a major step forward, but still before tabletop computers. Technology began speeding faster than light and upgrades and updates were ongoing. Today all that is at our fingertips instantly on a device the size of a credit card.
Computer Skills
Unfortunately for me, I left my career in that Princeton firm before the internet came on the scene. I knew nothing about the internet. My knowledge and experience was enough to use a clumsy – Huge by today’s technology – Desktop Computer. Typing a program from a C prompt was familiar with my antique computer knowledge and companies were all hiring data entry operators. I never had trouble finding work. Microsoft Windows was an amazing framework to bypass all those preliminaries to start a program. Later on, Personal Computers started coming with Windows already installed, so no need to buy the program and install yourself. It was the biggest timesaver!
My reason for leaving that job was due to my husband’s accident. He fell off a ladder and became permanently disabled. He did have a major handicap from a young age. But, Carl was superman to anyone who needed help. As a young boy with a high shoe and no hip joint, he could do anything. He had to do it his way, but he always succeeded. For him, it was a way of life.
Watching him perform any task might be scary or even amusing to some. But determination drove him on in spite of his necessary risks. I guess I could say he was a jack-of-all-trades in his neighborhood. He fixed cars, furnaces, faucets, small appliances, cut grass and ran errands. He was an unstoppable ball of energy and was always finding a never-ending list of things to do. Only one thing he could never do was ride a bike. Everything else he pursued to success!
Our Uncertain Future
Professionally, Carl was a banker for a few years before we married. The President of the bank was a part of the group starting the computer firm in Princeton and offered Carl a position. Hence, we rented our home and moved. We stayed in Pennsylvania, just this side of the river. Carl’s position was Bank Settlement Supervisor. We both had many years in that firm before his accident. His accident brought months of surgeries and a bleak diagnosis. In desperation, we sold our home, uprooted our kids and went back to our original home.
This wasn’t our plan for the future, but those were choices we needed to make. Without his salary we had to lower expenses. We still had four children at home. My husband lost his income and received nothing for over five years. After the move, I did get a job immediately and became the breadwinner. My wages never made up for our loss, but little by little, we puzzled our life back together as best we could. Starting again from scratch is never easy for anyone. But, Hey! Asi es La Vida! Plus we shared 56 happy years together before he left me for paradise. Now my life is totally different without the love of my life!
See you all on your next discovery through this galaxy as you browse the menu on the left!
June 16, 2021 @ 3:44 pm
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