The above photograph shows Dorothy Bastick labelling me with a Retired scarf during party.
Today is the 15 June 2011. It is the day that I am happy to remember those days in 1978 and onwards when DEC had training centres at Fountain House and Shire Hall in Reading in the UK.
I was an instructor during ten of those years and have happy memories of those times.
The TESCO run on a Friday afternoon after courses had finished for the week and we could relax over a glass of wine come to mind as do some of the names of the other instuctors and techies. I wonder if you were one of those people.
I am in contact with John Wolton who lives in Spain now and he asked me if I knew anybody who may well remember him. Living in Reading I am also lucky enough to meet some of our old buddies in the street. When I relate to John he is sad as he doesn't have that luxury.
I was Googled the other day - well not me, but the fact that I had entered DEC into another Blog was found by somebody Googling DEC and that led to me. He had been a student of mine and wanted to be remembered. Also this week I have had a telephone call from another ex-Dec student.
If by not other means I may well be remembered by this: "hugh.bin". We used to encourage our students to write 'noddy' programs to help with troubleshooting mini-computers and I often wrote very simple noddies (in machine code) and ended them with "hugh.bin" as a kind of trademark.
About ten years ago I visited DECPark as it was called when a big chunk of DEC was housed there. I was already retired and had to wait at reception to be identified. I was. A guy broke off his meeting with another guy from the US to come out and invite me into the conference. The US guy had his first taste of the Culture of us guys of DEC UK.
As you can imagine lots of the students that passed through our portals have moved on and up in the Computer World and achieved pretty high ranking in that world. My son Guy is a Sales Manager in the IT industry and visits people in all kinds of industries and meets people who remember me from their days with DEC.
This is only an introduction to me.
For one heck of a long time I taught New Hire courses that lasted about 6 weeks. It was rather strange because I had long before joining DEC been a Design Tech with IBM, working on the 360/40 computer, a Field Service Engineer with UNIVAC and the Engineering manager of a company in the Far East where I ran the FS department and training. I got so used to that role that I could walk into a classroom and teach without reference to any notes and finish my lesson exactly on time. I never got bored because the guys who passed through were all also very interesting. I felt that I could tell the guys who would succeed in the company as it grew.
I am retired and have been for 20 years. That is unbelievable isn't it? Of course I am telling Porkies. Officially I did retire in about 1990 but was pulled out of retirement for a little while to give hand in the DECDIRECT part of DEC where I helped customers decide what to buy from our catalogue. That was hairy! I hadn't realized that the second I put down my phone the next customer would be passed through to me. I had not learned yet to do the paperwork at the same time as I was with the customer.
My buddies asked me what I would do when I retired. I remember my old grand dad who had been a traction engine driver, etc. in Suffolk. When he retired he just sat in a chair in his garden and watched the world go by until the pub opened. Then he would go in with his concetina and knock out a few tuned and have a pint before going home. Well I can't play any musical instrument but I did also want to sit around and do nothing. Some hope! I discovered that I couldn't do that. I told them that I would be working in a few days and I was. TESCO needed a man to fill shelves and supervise the Drinks aisle. I got that job. After a while I left. That is a story in its self. I was witness to fraud and reported it. Made it impossible for me to continue working there. I was able to get a job the day I left and worked for a Wine Importer. I worked in the morning from about 5:00 am in the Post room. That gave me time for another job. When I was in the army in 1944 - 1956 I was trained in Teleprinters and also instructed in Teleprinters. A job came up to teach Touch-typing. I applied for that and secured it. The trouble was that it wasn't in a school, but very much on the road, so as to speak. It was fun.
Eventually I did stop working for money and began to work in a charity shop. I enjoyed the time that I did work there. Again that could be a story in itself.
Now the only work I do is to try to ride my bike and sometimes go for walks.
Getting back to the original idea of creating this blog it was to ask if there were any Ex-DEC people who would like to remember John Wolton or myself or any of the old trainers. If this proves to be successful, there is no reason why we couldn't get together and have a bit of a reunion and do the TESCO run again. I notice that there is a TESCO right opposite the Butts Centre. It isn't called the Butts Centre any more, but you'd find it.
That's it for now. I'll blog some more if and when I get the strenght.
Bye for now.....
I was an instructor during ten of those years and have happy memories of those times.
The TESCO run on a Friday afternoon after courses had finished for the week and we could relax over a glass of wine come to mind as do some of the names of the other instuctors and techies. I wonder if you were one of those people.
I am in contact with John Wolton who lives in Spain now and he asked me if I knew anybody who may well remember him. Living in Reading I am also lucky enough to meet some of our old buddies in the street. When I relate to John he is sad as he doesn't have that luxury.
I was Googled the other day - well not me, but the fact that I had entered DEC into another Blog was found by somebody Googling DEC and that led to me. He had been a student of mine and wanted to be remembered. Also this week I have had a telephone call from another ex-Dec student.
If by not other means I may well be remembered by this: "hugh.bin". We used to encourage our students to write 'noddy' programs to help with troubleshooting mini-computers and I often wrote very simple noddies (in machine code) and ended them with "hugh.bin" as a kind of trademark.
About ten years ago I visited DECPark as it was called when a big chunk of DEC was housed there. I was already retired and had to wait at reception to be identified. I was. A guy broke off his meeting with another guy from the US to come out and invite me into the conference. The US guy had his first taste of the Culture of us guys of DEC UK.
As you can imagine lots of the students that passed through our portals have moved on and up in the Computer World and achieved pretty high ranking in that world. My son Guy is a Sales Manager in the IT industry and visits people in all kinds of industries and meets people who remember me from their days with DEC.
This is only an introduction to me.
For one heck of a long time I taught New Hire courses that lasted about 6 weeks. It was rather strange because I had long before joining DEC been a Design Tech with IBM, working on the 360/40 computer, a Field Service Engineer with UNIVAC and the Engineering manager of a company in the Far East where I ran the FS department and training. I got so used to that role that I could walk into a classroom and teach without reference to any notes and finish my lesson exactly on time. I never got bored because the guys who passed through were all also very interesting. I felt that I could tell the guys who would succeed in the company as it grew.
I am retired and have been for 20 years. That is unbelievable isn't it? Of course I am telling Porkies. Officially I did retire in about 1990 but was pulled out of retirement for a little while to give hand in the DECDIRECT part of DEC where I helped customers decide what to buy from our catalogue. That was hairy! I hadn't realized that the second I put down my phone the next customer would be passed through to me. I had not learned yet to do the paperwork at the same time as I was with the customer.
My buddies asked me what I would do when I retired. I remember my old grand dad who had been a traction engine driver, etc. in Suffolk. When he retired he just sat in a chair in his garden and watched the world go by until the pub opened. Then he would go in with his concetina and knock out a few tuned and have a pint before going home. Well I can't play any musical instrument but I did also want to sit around and do nothing. Some hope! I discovered that I couldn't do that. I told them that I would be working in a few days and I was. TESCO needed a man to fill shelves and supervise the Drinks aisle. I got that job. After a while I left. That is a story in its self. I was witness to fraud and reported it. Made it impossible for me to continue working there. I was able to get a job the day I left and worked for a Wine Importer. I worked in the morning from about 5:00 am in the Post room. That gave me time for another job. When I was in the army in 1944 - 1956 I was trained in Teleprinters and also instructed in Teleprinters. A job came up to teach Touch-typing. I applied for that and secured it. The trouble was that it wasn't in a school, but very much on the road, so as to speak. It was fun.
Eventually I did stop working for money and began to work in a charity shop. I enjoyed the time that I did work there. Again that could be a story in itself.
Now the only work I do is to try to ride my bike and sometimes go for walks.
Getting back to the original idea of creating this blog it was to ask if there were any Ex-DEC people who would like to remember John Wolton or myself or any of the old trainers. If this proves to be successful, there is no reason why we couldn't get together and have a bit of a reunion and do the TESCO run again. I notice that there is a TESCO right opposite the Butts Centre. It isn't called the Butts Centre any more, but you'd find it.
That's it for now. I'll blog some more if and when I get the strenght.
Bye for now.....
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