How I Became Interested in Computers

In 1977, when I was a freshman at Wakefield High School, I wrote a lousy English paper. My teacher asked me to stay after school and discuss this paper with her. Well, I missed my bus and decided that I would get my Marching Band uniform while I waited for the late bus.

While trying to find a uniform that would actually fit (the upperclassmen had first choice, don't you know!), I met a girl who introduced me to a kid who happened to be in the Computer Club. When he took me to the computer room and sat me down in front of a DEC VT-200 terminal, I said, "So I can ask thing what the capital of the United States is and it'll tell me, right?" He said, "No, here's how it works..."

Well, in addition to being in the band (I played clarinet and flute), I hung around the computer room. In my sophomore year, I entered the work study program, and worked in the computer room four hours a day, year round. I remember thinking, "I can get paid for this? Cool!"

A church had burned in Wakefield, and in order to raise money, they had a lottery that they called "The 1000 Club". You paid $5/month and the winner got $1,000. A few other prizes were handed out each month and the church raised money to rebuild. Well, wanted to automate the mailing and selection so after a long convoluted route, I was hired to write the programs.

Now, I was seventeen years old and was offered $100 to do what might have been ten hours of work (including documentation). I was on top of the world!. When I sent the documentation to the company coordinating this and asked (meekly) for my check, they had me come in for an interview. They hired me two weeks out of high school and I've been working as a software engineer ever since.

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