4
You know how you go on a trip and always forget to bring something?
As the cooler temperatures of the Fall of Nineteen Eighty-Three
arrived, I realized I had left my coat in New England. Given a money
crunch at the time, I felt buying a new coat was a bit much and so I
just toughed it out in my jeans & tee.
Colorado came with a few surprises for a naive rural New Englander
like me. Such as a phone call where I discovered I had 'won a free
prize' of a photo sitting. I was thrilled to have won, but as I
really didn't like having my picture taken, I asked if I could give
my 'prize' to someone else. They paused for a bit on the phone and
then said, ''Sure, what's their name and phone number?'' My friend
with the unlisted phone number wasn't too happy to get the subsequent
phone call and explained to me the gimmick behind these things was
the photo was free, the resulting prints were pricey. I was not to
give out his phone number again and to take surprise phone calls in
Colorado with a grain or two of salt. So when I received a flier in
the mail to enroll in a new Business College, I was suitably
suspicious of it... And yet,
unlike my High School where they told me I had no future educational
options, this flier was pretty sure I did. I decided to go
visit.
'American Business College' was a small building, about a third the
size of my High School, but was bustling with students. Talking to
the enrollment adviser, I told him right up front of my dismal Senior
year of High School and how it likely disqualified me from being
accepted. But he assured me that they judged people based on their
performance at their own campus and I could enroll and see how well I
did and decide if I should stay. I debated this and wondered if they
had any course of study in computers and sure enough they did.
Not only did they have a variety of course subjects, but each was
taught by 'a professional in the field' rather than a stodgy college
professor shy of any real world experience. He gave me a tour of the
building; about the right size for an Elementary School, I
wondered if it formerly had been. Each room was full of students
of various ages and the room dedicated to computer classes had a
respectable enough TI 990 minicomputer for the students to learn
with. Returning to his enrollment office, he asked if I had any
other questions or concerns. I pointed out that I didn't have any
current job so I probably couldn't afford it...
There, it turned out, I was in luck. When my
not as older brother had tried to go to College, student aid was
based on our father's level of income as my brother lived at the
family home at the time. Given his management position at a ski
area, my father was deemed to have more than enough money to pay for
my brother's college studies and thus he didn't qualify for any
student aid. Despite the fact that dad wasn't going to help out
anyhow. In my case, my mother's level of income was low enough
that it wouldn't be a barrier to my receiving Pell Grants and
applying for student loans. All I'd have to do is have my mother
come in with her most recent tax return to confirm her income level.
This seemed iffy to me. So I asked what sort of degree I could get
from them, an Associates? With a cheery smile and a laugh he let me
know that they didn't do those traditional degrees, but once done I'd
receive a certificate of completion and I could cite that as I
filled-out job applications in the future. I said I'd think about it
and went home and debated it. While I wasn't sure how good their
computer classes would be, I was pretty sure of my existing abilities
and decided to pass it by mother to see what she'd say. She thought
my pursing some form of higher education was a good idea and was
willing to bring in her tax form as long as she wouldn't have to pay
anything toward my going there. And so I enrolled for their winter
quarter that started in November.
As luck would have it, Al's software company had a short term job for
me as well. During the past few months he had been writing a package
of educational games based on the Apple computer for school districts
to buy and, as he neared completion, they found out their publisher
also wanted the same package for the Trash 80 line. Would I
be interested? Absolutely! Al was going to allow me to
port and adjust his code for the project as it needed to be completed
by the end of November but I asked if I could first just try out what
he had and go from there. He agreed and they bought a brand new
TRS 80 Model 4 for the office that I could use. As I had
my own Trash 80 at home, I could write much of the code there,
then bring it in to show Al and he could recommend tweaks. Looking
over his package of about six games from Hang Man, Cross Word puzzle
and Word Search generators, etc. I decided just to write my own code
from scratch to produce the same results and by the end of the month
was done at the same time Al finished his three month effort. We
were both pretty happy with the results, as was his math teacher
turned start-up owner, and I got paid a few hundred dollars for my
work. I was thrilled as I kind of had my first computer job in
Colorado and asked if there was anything more I could do for them?
Nope.
So I thanked them for the opportunity and went straight to the local
ski store and bought myself a new jacket for the winter and picked up
ABC's ''Beauty Stab'' album to listen to. As I had taken up getting
my food from the 'Academy Burger Company' for my daily meal next to
Al's office while I worked for them, I wrote my old friend Van back
in New England of my 'ABC's of life. I wrote that I missed visiting
with him, Luke, and David at their dorm but assumed they were once
again engrossed in studies as they must have entered their second
year of College this Fall.
Little did I know.
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