I call this my computermony, because like a testimony, it tells of where I started, and how I got where I am today.

I guess I must admit that I am a little slow in things. I first got within striking distance of a computer in High School. It was 1979 or 1980, when a sweet, bright guy named Eric Norrod brought his TRS-80 computer to school. About all I saw that turkey do was play chess. It had a cassette tape drive, so it was wait a while, then it'll work. I never messed with that thing.

When I started school at Tennessee Tech, I took Computer Science 107 (a class in FORTRAN programming) for only two days! I dropped the course. The computer thing intimidated me! The instructor was a guy named Ron Sircy, better known as "No Mercy Sircy" (BTW: he died not long ago). Not a good start toward computer nerd-dom I admit.

I majored in business management at Tech (which has done me NO GOOD, but that's another page!), but this did not help me dodge a date of destiny with computers. I had no choice (aside from changing majors) but to take BMGT 281, Business Applications of Computers. My instructor was Dr. Gary Pickett, who really made the class fun. The class covered the BASIC Language, and we worked on a minicomputer system (1 CPU with several terminals) that lurked in the basement of Johnson Hall. For experience's sake, we did run a program on the BIG computer, a mammoth Burroughs mainframe jobbie that lived in Clement Hall. To use that monster we had to PUNCH CARDS, feed them, and then wait for the printer to spit out the results (good or bad). So you could say that aside from systems like the ENIAC, I have had some form of physical exposure to most facets of the Computer Revolution! Wow!

I did pretty well in 281 up until I ran into the DIM statement. I just simply could not make that thing work! I passed the class, but I was shell-shocked at computers. When my Finance 321 class descended into the Johnson Hall Computer Center, I saw my first Apple II unit, and handled my first floppy disk. Obviously, I survived that experience. I did some more time over at Clement Hall for another BMGT class in Quantitative Analysis, an experience best described as "Diff-E Light" (Diff-E is short for Differential Equations, the next step beyond Calculus, should you make it that far!). This time there were no cards to punch, but my very own terminal to stare at and curse when the program doesn't work. Another class I took was BMGT 381, another applications course. I didn't have to take that one, but I did anyway! This time, the name of the game was Applesoft Basic, and the instrument of torture was the Apple IIe. I typed in the stuff from the sheets like a good little boy, but it just didn't work, and I had no clue how to make it work! I wound up just handing in the junk, just to get a real grade instead of an Incomplete! I got a C, which I took just like I did in many of my classes at TTU: GRATEFULLY!

While I was in BMGT 381, I also used a Digital Rainbow computer. The Rainbow was DEC's answer to the PC and IIe. Or I guess i should say, I tried to use it. I was banging away on a document in WordStar. When it came time to print it or whatever I was trying to do to the document, I just got a bunch of gobbledygook flooding my screen! I had NO clue what was going on, or what to do about it except to scream for help!

I did have Cousins and a friend who owned Commodore 64 computers, which they used throughout College. I even used one to bang out a report for a Finance class. I mostly played games on the C-64, just like the machine's owners did! I really liked this one game called Master of the Lamp. You rode through space on a magic carpet through a corridor of frame things. You had to keep your maneuvers very tight, or you would start swinging very wildly in your flight, and wind up most likely hitting a frame. When you got to the end of the ride, you would bang a gong and a genie would come out of a lamp. The genie would play some tunes on his pipe. Your job was to match the colors of the notes he played with colored gongs. If you hit all the notes just right before the notes fell down, you went on. If the note hit the ground, you went back. I didn't get really far very often, but boy did I dig the music!

Anyway, I busted out from TTU with degree in hand, and a fear/hatred of computers. It was tough going, but I managed to go for awhile without needing computers. I did use a computer cousin, a Brother word processor at WAEW-AM. When I was there they did get a PC to do billing and stuff. I managed to poke around a little on a quiz thing on it, but that was the extent of that. There was good reason for that. It was a business machine after all. The company that sold them the software sent a person to teach the girls how to run the thing. Those were the days!

For my computer weenie-dom, which was about it until around 1993, when it came to pass that WATX-AM was planning to go "RoboJock" (Automation). My "replacement" was to be an Arrakis Digilink. I say was to be not because we didn't get it (we did), but because I am still there (for now anyway, but you never can tell!)! So now I had to learn how to work this thing. Eventually, I got me a Dummies book on DOS, and learned about how to do some stuff in DOS. Finally something about a computer that I can actually DO! Wowee! Since then, I have taken some courses in DOS, Windows, Lotus 123, and WordPerfect. Plus, I finally have my own machine, and I'm okay! In fact, I'm well on my way to my ultimate goal.......

Looking back, I believe that I came in during an interesting time for computers. I've gone from punching cards to installing a hard drive and tape drive all by myself! Sure, I wish I could have been more fully aboard earlier! I think my problem is that I am not really a "programmer" type of person, and when I first could get my hands on computers, the only way you could get stuff done on them was by programming them yourself! When I got into DOS, and could actually see something constructive (?) take place after all that typing, I began to get more enthused! I suppose that I could've used computers all along, but it took the industry 17 years to dumb down enough to where I could actually get it and run with it!! Anyway, may your computing be happy and bright!