Memoirs - Working Years
(preliminary)
TECHNICAL WRITING CAREER
(all in Boson)
CALIFORNIA (after moving there)
Introduction
I am lucky. For most of my working life I enjoyed working (to a greater or lesser degree, of course). But work was always, at a minimum, fun - at best it was an adventure. (As a field engineer I traveled all over the country.) I almost never had to endure the corporate insanity that is pervasive today.
I was also lucky by getting into a lot of "back doors" as you will read about in the remainder of this section. I became an engineer with no formal engineering education, and a technical writer on a similar basis.
After just a few menial jobs (like one summer job assembling little parts in Coney Island), and my early stint with being on the production line at Westrex on 10th Ave. (New York), I lucked out. Somehow their chief engineer noticed I had some calling other than that of an assembly worker. I was solicited by this man and offered a professional job as a junior engineer at their research labs on 59th Street.
So I started doing more interesting and challenging work and was responsible mostly to myself for how I did my work. I became an engineer - albeit - self taught.
I actually had two different careers. I started out as a technician / engineer and then changed to technical writing when I tired of all the traveling (I was mostly a field engineer - never home). Technical writing sounded good and as application reference material I had my A + lab reports from college.
(following: list/sketch) - I can't remember the order of these times, but this is just "brainstorming."
EARLY Part Time Jobs
(summers)
The J.C.H. (day camp counselor)
The J.C.H. stands for the Jewish Community House (now more likely referred to as a Jewish Community Center).
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Anyway, I had an "in" at the place because my
sister's father-in-law (Dan Trupin) also worked
there (he moonlighted - his regular job was actually as an official for the City
of New York.
I worked there two summers, once with the "tots" (5 yr. old kids), and then with older (10 - 13 or so yr. old kids). It was not a bad job and even fun at times. But it wasn't "real work" So the following summer I looked for a "real job." |
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Dan Trupin: NYC License Inspector |
The "depth finder place in Coney Island."
I think my first real job after being a day camp counselor was a real shitty job. It was in a small sweatshop actually near the boardwalk in Coney Island. Since we lived not too far away I got there on my bicycle, riding partly on the abandoned boardwalk early in the morning.
The company made "depth indicators" for small craft. At this time (before computers) an inexpensive depth indicator had a little neon bulb that continuously spun around on a rotor which itself was a small printed circuit board. This little thing went inside the instrument and the flashing little bulb on the rotating arm indicated the depth of the water below the boat - a process I now fully understand, and in a way related to a later professional job I held at Westrex/Litton Systems.
The technology was interesting, but my job was far from that. My "task" was to sit on a stool and glue and solder the little bulbs on the little board. All day, one after another.
I found this tedious to say the least. I did not leave this job on good terms mainly because of a dispute with my boss.
Part Time Jobs
(after school)
Polytech and MRI
After taking a leave of absence from the going to college at Brooklyn Polytechic
Institute - I went from being a part-time (after school) assistant (see the
Ice Lab in the
section After High School Days-Polytech). This job was worth a whole chapter and
was a lot of fun. As I mentioned in another chapter, after taking off a year
from school, I decided not to go back but to work there instead. So I got hired
as a full-time technician in the electronics research division located in a
separate building also known as the Microwave Research Institute (MRI).
I repaired, maintained and built some interesting stuff too in this job. I also had my first experience with a computer - an ancient machine donated by Bell Laboratories because it was obsolete.
ENGINEERING CAREER
Mt. Sinai Hospital
-Neurology Lab with Adam etc.
I got this job from a listing at the CCNY (The City College of New York) job bank. At the time after I had dropped out of Polytech, I tried to pick up and try for a degree at CCNY. I didn't get the degree, although I got enough credits to have one, and then got this job that sounded interesting. It was at a small research lab at what was then just called "Mount Sinai Hospital" in Manhattan (now the Mount Sinai Medical Center).
When I applied I was hired immediately by a man named Adam*. This turned out to be quite interesting and required all of my skills in mechanical as well as my developing expertise in electronic engineering. It also introduced me to the field of neurology, for which department the work was being done. Basically I was a contractor and the job had no title.
On this job I did a lot of work using an EEG machine, or to be more specific, a polygraph. This knowledge and experience would later become a key to my getting a position at Harvard University. The job had some interesting aspects since research grants can be got for some pretty weird stuff. On adjunct job concerned eye movements of birds. For this I had to go to the Bronx Zoo. I also became personal friends of Adam and his wife.
Working at the famous Bronx Zoo in New York
The job at the Bronx Zoo is one of my more interesting "assignments." I arrived by car every morning long before the zoo actually opened. The Bronx Zoo in New York is world famous and is so large you can get lost in it. It even has an African Savannah exhibit with lions roaming free in what appears to be a wooded field (of course there is a moat to keep the lions on there side). I used to visit it a lot before I got this assignment.
What I found when I arrived in the early morning was that they allowed the peacocks out after hours, so you had to be careful not to run over a curious peacock. My assignment was to do some eye movement studies of birds - in particular an ostrich. One ostrich was chosen as a subject and placed in a large bird cage which contained our apparatus. It was Ok for the ostrich who had just enough room. It was also located at one end of a small building know as the Ostrich House. Here they not only displayed ostriches, they bred them, and the cutest thing was that a whole batch of them had just hatched. Their pen was right next to my facility and so I had a bunch of tiny (maybe 6 inch tall) ostriches as neighbors.
Another time I stayed too late. The zoo had closed and was locked down when I tried to leave. I got a little frantic because nobody was in sight and I didn't think a night with the peacocks would be so much fun. I drove all over the zoo finally locating a guard who let me out.
* Adam's father, in a odd coincidence, just happened to be a friend of Dan Trupin. This is just a as Dan had nothing to do with Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Neurology Department - EEG Lab
I got this job as a result of working for Adam. It was a full time job and I was then a member of the department. I worked in the EEG lab which was both the hospital's clinical EEG lab (for patients) and an experimental facility.
I remember the main feature of that lab was a moderate size anechoic chamber.
....
Westrex / Litton Systems
-Herb and the place on 59th St.
This started out bad but ended up being opening the door to my career in engineering. After my full time, but temporary job at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, I was looking for a "real" full-time job. I found an opening in a factory across town.
The company was Westrex and the division I joined was making stuff for the Navy. I got hired as an assembler, not unlike the "depth indicator" job in Coney Island. I sat at a bench and put together "chronometers," accurate clocks that had applications on naval vessels. This was very boring to me and I often took bathroom breaks in order to take a nap. I had to avoid falling asleep at my bench!
Perhaps this was noticed, or something else, but one day a large machine (about the size of a washing machine) was brought into the shop. I was told that it was a precision depth recorder (PDR). This was a new contract (and actually the machine had just been invented, in fact the our department head was the inventor and (I believe) held the patent on it. It was just coincidental that this machine did something just like the first little machine I worked on in Coney Island, show the bottom of the sea below a boat, only it was a thousand times more accurate, and made a newspaper size chart of the ocean bottom (see http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/library/TharpMapping.html - image entitled "1954 Precision Depth Recording). It was, in fact, to be installed on the new "Thresher" class of submarine the Navy was just introducing.
At the time the lab where it was being developed was in another building so I am not sure why one machine came to the production floor, probably so they could begin making more, but whatever the reason, the chief engineer, a man named Herb, asked me to stop working on chronometers and do some work on this newfangled PDR. Not long after that he asked me if I would like to join the engineering staff at the research building and work on these machines.
I jumped at the opportunity and became a junior engineer doing mostly troubleshooting and testing. Eventually I became the final test engineer - which was a fancy name for a technician, but still with a title of engineer and a great deal of responsibility. Never again did I have to "punch-in" on a timecard when I came to work.
I met some interesting people at that place including one rather peculiar machinist whom I eventually befriended. It turned out he loved to sail, and even had his own small sailboat. His name was Gustav (Gus) Polte, and he was originally German.
That is about all I remember about this phase of my working there, except that Herb's boss was really the man in charge of our division. He was actually a PhD. scientist and held a position in oceanography and the esteemed Lamont-Doherty Institute (Now called "The Earth Institute) connected with Columbia University in New York. His name was Bernie, and I remember that our little specialty group (The PDR group) was an elite group in every sense - from the wireman up to the sales staff. At the time that was truly a good place to work.
It also turned out that the company was developing a commercial model of the same type of instrument, so eventually I started doing field calls, usually to navy yards to oversee the installation of the commercial versions (which the navy was also interested in for some of their smaller surface ships).
Fortunately (or unfortunately - not sure) - Herb always got the jobs involving setting up and testing of the big PDRs on the subs. These machines were essentially hand built, and then shipped to Norway where there was a sub base and where for some reason the installation was done. So I never got to Norway!
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- Field Service Engineer- Litton - Long Island
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Harvard Medical
School Psychophysiology Lab
I got this position because I was hanging around with my cousin Terry Spaiser who went to a small education college (for teachers), in Cambridge. She had a roommate with whom I had some brief romantic notions. So I used to go to Boston (from New York), by car, and hang around there. The girls were into folk music too (Terry - now Tirtza Singer), which was my "bag" too. One day I was sitting on the floor (fashionable in those days) at one of her guitar player friends. There was a copy of the Harvard Crimson sitting on the floor and I was glancing at the "want ads" when I noticed a box that said something like "technician needed for research lab."
I think I was working for Westrex or Litton at the time and wanted to get out of there so I went on the interview. The interviewer was a young man named Gary and we got along wonderfully. I was offered the job on the spot and accepted on the spot. I was a shoe-in because of the work I did at Mt. Sinai Hospital for Adam. It was very much the same job, but on a much bigger scale and also was a permanent job with a prestigious university. I went back to N.Y.C. told everybody I was moving to Boston, packed up and left. That was in 1970 and began my long stay in Boston
Probably the most fun job I had was working here. Our chief, Dr. Shapiro was an eclectic psychologist who became a behaviorist* He was also a brilliant man who had all sorts of academic credentials, but fundamentally, was just one hell of a good guy.
Although part of Harvard University (in Cambridge MA), our operation was not on or near the prestigious campus (but I did live across the street from it). Our operation and facility was located in an associated (state) mental hospital called "Massachusetts Mental Center." It was a fancy name for a pretty old building in Boston, just outside of Brookline.
When I got there (or maybe during the interview) I met the actual head of the lab Dave. (Gary was a junior member of this department of the medical school). The name of the department was the "Psychophysiology Department" and we had a well equipped laboratory.
The first person I met who was then the staff engineer was a nice guy named Bernie. We got along fine. Bernie was ready to move on (and up) and I was to replace him. Thus I received the title engineer - which I really was. I designed and built (in my well equipped shop), some pretty unusual stuff. I could come up with solutions for any and all the experiments Dr. Dave could come up with. My solutions were always invocative and worked better than expected.
This was real esoteric engineering and I was definitely the right person for the job. The labs were located in a separate building only attached to the hospital, so patient contact was minimal. Once I was there I was "graduated" rapidly because to keep clean working in a lab, I wore a white lab coat. Sometimes I also wore a tie so everybody outside of the lab - like in the hospital proper and the cafeteria called me doctor. Why object? So I became Dr. Les Spaiser.
The job was very interesting and to my custom and special devices each lab had an 8 channel polygraph machine which recorded all kinds of physiological responses to different stimuli. Our subjects were human volunteers some of whom were very unique and interesting in themselves
*He had tried other types of psychology
-Dr. Ennio - Harvard
-Final years back at Harvard; Richard S, and going it alone.
In between jobs for Gabriel, I worked as a technical writer for other firms such as XRE
Siemens Division up North of Boston
Was a company I can't remember a lot about - even its name, but it was relatively small but had a very nice front - thanks to the Siemens Corporation having acquired it. It was understood that this was a temporary job and I worked there until I finished the project I was hired for.
NEC - Natick MA
I got the job at NEC while I lived in Framingham with MaryAnn. It was a short
drive from where I lived. It was located in a new building and occupied one
floor.
NEC is a huge conglomerate of companies with headquarters in Japan (NEC stands for Nippon Electric Company). The was the microcomputer division and I was hired as a applications engineer and also served with another hands-on guy as their lab engineer. This division of NEC was the only one that had no Japanese management. The division president (Roger) was a nice guy as were the VP (Richard) and most of the staff. My direct supervisor was a fellow named Duane - he was real nice.
I had a cubicle that was half-shared with another fellow like me (Ted K). We got along well as he was an outdoorsman and a cyclist. In fact it was because of him that I decided to by the particular French racing bike I now have. He rode his into work every day possible and let me try it out.
The job consisted of helping customers or potential customers design projects with our microcomputers (chips). These were small and inexpensive single chip microcomputers not so different from the original Fairchild microcomputers I had been introduced to. We didn't build anything, but instead developed the computer code to make the chips do the specific tasks the customers wanted. Their application was not to be part of a PC, but to go into high end gadgets and toys.
Among our customers were Parker (toy and game) corporation, and Castle Toys. We also were hired by other companies who needed small display devices since we made the first inexpensive microcomputer chips that could be connected to a small appliance display. Thus my buddy designed a microwave controller and I designed a digital clock that was designed for hospital operating rooms.
The purpose of the lab was to test our designs on prototypes using a development kit like the one I had purchased myself for my first Fairchild single-chip microcomputer. Once we got the device prototype to work we sent the code to Japan where application specific chips were manufactured in the thousands. (I think the minimum order was for about 10,000 units). Then the custom chips were sent back to the companies where they were incorporated into the end product. This was the beginning of the hand-held electronic toy, and I think one of the first ones was called "Einstein."
We also got samples of the toys so we had lots of toys laying around.
....
- OEP/Davionics (not the real name) - Field engineer
I got this job after leaving NEC. I was out of work living in Framingham and had just met Marilyn. I really needed a job. Then I saw an ad for a field engineer for the New England region. The interview was in New Jersey, so I called and it sounded good.
I went and interviewed and got the job. It wasn't bad, and it came with a company car, so I didn't have to use my car driving all over New England. The company made portable orthopedic X-Ray machines, in fact the company was originally called "OEP," It was a fine old company and made good machines.
This was the first time I worked in this environment, and with X-Ray equipment. I had quite a few interesting experiences in the course of this job and traveled from Maine to New York City installing, fixing and maintaining these machines.
Eventually their promise to keep me in New England was not kept and they sent me to New York City as well. For that trip and some of the Maine trips I flew rather than drive. It was up to me.
Surgeries I Attended
I saw quite a few surgeries on this job, including one in a small Vermont hospital, which is the only time I ever got faint (almost fainted) in an operating room. The injury was a skiing accident and the guy's leg was broken pretty badly. I didn't know what was coming and just stood there monitoring the machine which was my reason for being there.
Then unexpected to me the surgeon grabbed the guy's broken leg an yanked it out and let go - resetting the fracture - with a sickening POP. I guess because I was a skier even in that area, this surgery hit me - in the gut. I backed away, prepared to make a hurried exit, but it passed, and I made it through!
Another time, in a much less traumatic but miserable situation, a woman was having a hip pinning. This was at a city hospital in New York, and it was absolutely the sloppiest thing I ever saw. The surgeon and staff were very incompetent and the X-Ray operator could not operate the machine. I had to do it (which was illegal - I was just there to monitor how it worked - operating an X-Ray machine in surgery required that I have a license, which I did not).
The two things I remember was that after drilling holes in this poor woman's hip, the surgeon realized the holes did not match the screws he had. I guess the holes were too big and he could not fix the hip - so most of the team quit for lunch while I guess he sent someone out to look for some screws and. After lunch he came back and I suppose finished. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing.
Not too long after I joined this company it was "acquired" by a California company called Davionics (not the real name). For some reason the company was based in Salt Lake City, Utah, so I got to see a lot of Mormons. Unfortunately the new company, unlike their predecessor, did not know how to build X-Ray machines. Eventually I got fired because I kept trying to make the machines work right, something that was almost impossible and that made me look bad. In fact I saved face and sales for the company a number of times.
The engineers knew that, and at first backed me up, but two things caused my demise. First, because of a bad domestic situation, pressuring me on a Friday afternoon - I made a bad mistake and essentially destroyed a new machine. They sent out a new one and it was a success, but I could not overcome that disaster. Finally it came to pass that one of the Utah guys got married - to a woman from New England. He therefore wanted to move to New England - and - poof - that was the end of my job!
While I was living in Framingham and was with Marilyn, I was looking for work. I found an ad in the newspaper looking for a technical guy to help in a company that did atmospheric research. It turned out to be a very small company owned and operated by an eccentric scientist named Roger. He had one full time technician and a part-time accountant I would be the second full time tech/engineer. He also hired temps as needed.
The main requirement was that you not be afraid to fly in one of his small planes. He had two hangared at Hanscom Field on the outskirts of Boston. My break-in test was a flight in his twin engine Beechcraft. He took us out over the ocean and at 140 knots, skimmed the water at about 10 feet. I'm not sure if he was testing me or showing off but I never flinched. Then he took me up to 15,000 feet and said "look at your fingernails." They were indeed a little blue but I felt fine. I passed with flying colors. Actually, although the Beechcraft was not pressurized it did have oxygen as its ceiling was over 30,000 feet.
The Beechcraft had three of its six seats removed to accommodate a data recorder and other equipment beside and behind the instrument tech. That seat was behind the the two people in front, Roger, the pilot and often me. I had no idea how to fly so I was not a co-pilot. Funding was by the NSF and maybe some other government agencies who were interested in atmospheric electricity. Roger was able to do things the much larger aircraft the government had for similar purposes.
The other plane was a much smaller (and older wooden airplane). It was a Bellanca which was probably popular before I was born. It was a good plane and carried two people. A recorder was stuffed in behind the cockpit crew. The Bellanca was a very stable craft and one time over Cape Cod bay Roger told me to take over since he was tired. Of course all you have to do is "hold it steady" and also flying over water on a calm day is like being in a warm bathtub. Calm and easy. I did a few very tiny maneuvers but of course nothing dangerous. I liked my life too.
The one important thing I learned was that Roger was a very good pilot, if not a cowboy. And I trusted he wanted to stay alive. He had a lovely wife and a daughter.
Some days I worked out at the hangar on the planes and sometimes in his makeshift lab in his home.
Davionics goes here
TECHNICAL WRITING CAREER
Tony - My First Tech Writing Job
I can't remember the name of the company, but the work was advertised as a 3 month temporary technical writing job. I though I could use a change of job venue - and it turned out fine. Tony and his woman partner ran the business. They actually had about 10 employees, but the job really needed an engineering type of person. It was a manual for a PC that was being built by a tiny outfit in the outskirts of Boston. Tony and I got along great since he had previously been an engineer and was also a Brit.
Things seemed to be going fine at first. They were really nice folks. I was given the choice of working at his place (a commute) or working at home. I chose to work at home, and had to buy a PC. It was the most basic IBM machine with two floppy disks and no had disk. It cost $2500 but I looked at it as an investment into my future which it absolutely was.
Unfortunately they also had overextended themselves and went bankrupt. After two months Tony told me about it and I realized he could not pay me in dollars, so I asked him for a one day course in technical writing in lieu of cash, realizing this and a reference from him would get me another job in the field. He was a very cool guy and he wasn't kidding about his dilemma. He also agreed to my proposed bargain. Then we all helped him rescue as much equipment from the place before the bank could come an claim it. After that we then had a "goodbye party at Tony's home! A lot of us sat on the rescued equipment that was scattered around his house. Indeed - this little incident launched my whole future in technical writing on to desktop publishing and also as a computer hacker - uh - engineer!
At the time technical writing was not considered a professional discipline and there were no courses or degrees in it. Unlike today, most technical writers were like me, ex-engineers. Today most of them are ex-English majors and it is a valid profession with a Society of Technical Writers (I joined for a while). They take courses and may even have degrees. But they don't know much about the machinery they are writing about. So I had got in the back door just in time.
- Panametrics
I got this job a while after I shopped around for a technical writing job full time. I worked at Panametrics for a few years. I was their first technical writer. I was also a shoe-in and had other offers as well. So my deal with Tony worked.
Panametrics is an engineering company that specializes in commercial systems especially in the oil, gas, and other related equipment. They make flow monitors, hygrometers and the like. Basically their customer base were also engineers. I was a good match for this job again because of my technical background. I believe I had also got my credentials as a technical writer so I was a shoe-in for the job.
The company was desperate because a very large oil company refused to pay their bill unless the company could supply a "real" manual. Up until this time they got away with having the Panametrics engineer write up a technical description which the secretary laid our in WordPerfect (then a leading word processing program). The company used PCs exclusively.
While I didn't know WordPerfect - I didn't say so. Therefore when they gave me the job and the first project immediately I had to work 12 - 16 hour days, learning WordPerfect as I went along. At the end I got the job done and became pretty proficient in WordPerfect.
I was then asked what title I would like for my job. I thought I was hired as a technical writer but that was not what they meant. Basically, they realized they would need a whole department, so they made "a suggestion." How about Manager, Technical Writing. Why refuse? So I became a manager of a department I was given the authority to create. I eventually hired two full time technical writers.
In the meantime I began to learn about desktop publishing which was perfect for this small quantity specialized manufacturer. We eventually got a program called Ventura Publisher which was a vanguard program in it's heyday. While most programs for the PC were still using DOS (Windows didn't exist yet), Ventura ran on an graphic operating system called GEM. For the first time you could see the document on a screen looking exactly like it would appear when printed (this is sometimes referred to as WYSIWG). I saw a lot of developments in computers and software during this period.
Eventually Windows arrived, but we didn't use it. However Panametrics consisted of two completely separate divisions, ours and the NDT group. The NDT group had its own president and staff and was completely separate from us, except for being in the same building, which was a old (very old) building that had originally been the Waltham Watch factory. The NDT group had their own writers (actually still mostly engineers and marketing people who could write - secretaries still put together their manuals). There was a bit of a look what we can do attitude between the divisions, but by and large we were friendly. However they were the first to get Windows.
In those days the PC was not really designed to handle graphics, and the policy of using PCs made the first version of Windows run like a snail. At that time, and as I explained elsewhere, the correct platform for graphic and publishing programs was the Apple computer. I believe NDT had one or two Apple computers. But the work (files) were not compatible and it was one or the other. My department refused to switch, in fact I had no intention of switching since Ventura ran very well on these slow computers (proving that the GEM operating system was way ahead of Windows). However the company that produced it did not pick up the ball. Essentially Microsoft had seen it and came to the developer to offer to buy it. The guy (and his wife) lived in San Francisco and were anti-corporate types. So they basically kicked the Microsoft representatives - who were wearing pin striped suits and ties - out.
Thus Mr. Gates went to another operating system developer - whomever it was - and bought a primitive version of DOS, which Microsoft then developed into the DOS that dominated the PC world until it came out with Windows. This was fine except, that as I said, with the primitive PCs of those days Windows was so slow. So we stayed with Ventura running on GEM. NDT however struggled with Windows because it wanted file compatibility with PCs, not available by using the much better Apple computers.
The Ventura Users Group VUGB
Eventually there were enough Ventura users to form a group. Myself and my friend Gabriel, a very good technical writer, probably were among the principle members, although it might have been the other way around, with my meeting him there. It was a wonderful group of creative types and intelligent people. Our meetings eventually drew speakers, like the founder of Ventura and eventually marketing people from Xerox who were themselves trying to get into the desktop publishing business. (Eventually Ventura sold out to Xerox who proceeded to try to develop a version for Windows - which turned out to be a total disaster.) Subsequently Gabriel founded his own company called Characters after landing a good contract with the Foxboro Corporation.
In the meantime I kept making manuals in limited quantities as needed. At the beginning we simply printed out a manual at a time on our own printers, but then decided we needed enough of each to send the copy to a printer who printed and bound them for us. This was an ideal method of producing small quantities of specialized manuals and I became pretty self serving as manager, spending more of my time experimenting with the new software than making manuals.
I think that was about the time I started having psychological problems that affected my performance and eventually cost me my job at Panametrics. That, and my personal relationship problems probably precipitated my third breakdown - although the connections and timing of these events is not so clear to me anymore.
The problems I suffered at Panametrics were really too bad as I had been offered a promotion to become the head of a new publications department - which would have served both divisions, and been a division in itself. I might even become a vice president if I had been able to take this role. But I couldn't and so it was, I ended up with nothing.
After I recovered I had become friends with Gabriel, who as a very good tech writer and quite into the desktop publishing revolution, started a group, which took over the writing department at a company in Foxboro Massachusetts. Ten of us, with new PCs took over from the already floundering group of about 60 people who did their manuals (using WordPerfect). We were successfully able to do this because of our complete grasp of the new technology/software, and by hiring some very talented people. Gabriel eventually founded his own company, Characters, which I worked for on and off until I retired and moved to California.
Process Control Company with crazy Ron and his wife - next to the Marriot Hotel
- you were the 2nd writer - 1rst was Rich - a real nice guy. You did a pretty good manual for them but really messed up when Ron and his sales staff were in Nantucket for a sales conference and you were asked to write that edition of the company newsletter. Stayed up 24 hours to meet the deadline and had to deliver it to the airport to get it there. You were so tired you made embarrassing mistakes and didn't last too long after that.
I got a temporary job at a company that made automatic valves for air duct pipes. I remember the very nice president - just one heck of a nice guy. But at this point I was experiencing burn out and I just couldn't cut it. I struggled through the contract, but not easily.p
I believe I was hired as a temp with the option to stay on, if it worked out. This was the first (and probably only) company I worked for that used Apple Macintosh computers in the documentation department. It was an interesting place, and was making apparatus that I was very familiar with (XRE stands for X-Ray Engineering). One of the problems I had that when I got tired with the writing I would wander out on the manufacturing floor, and especially to the finished X-Ray setups they had and chatted with their engineers. This became a bad habit and may have limited my time there to the originally contracted time of several months.
Siemens Division up North of Boston
Was a company I can't remember a lot about - even its name, but it was relatively small but had a very nice front - thanks to the Siemens Corporation having acquired it. It was understood that this was a temporary job and I worked there until I finished the project I was hired for.
Gabriel and Foxboro
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Characters Corp.
My friend Gabriel (from the Ventura Users Group) eventually bid on and got a good contract to run a new documentation department at this company located in the town of Foxboro, Massachusetts.
Contract
Technical Writer
- Home office in Brighton and beginning of career as a desktop publisher
After Dr. Shapiro left the psychophysiology lab at Harvard, he went to UCLA, in Westwood California. The entire staff was invited to come, and a few did. I went conditionally, while a colleague at Harvard maintained my position there. Somehow we got away with it and I was getting paid from both places for a while.
I believe I wrote about this elsewhere and the luxurious apartment I lived in at 1 Sunset Boulevard overlooking the Pacific Ocean (and adjacent to Malibu). At any rate there were two parts to the job, one at UCLA and the other in Sepulveda, a place in "The Valley" (San Fernando Valley) - where I took the apartment and sent for my girlfriend Betty to come to stay with me.
This was a wonderful job and my assignment at UCLA was to build a lab to rival the one at Harvard. I did this with some difficulty due to the distractions of living in an apartment on the ocean. But Dr. Shapiro never fretted, he was, as I said easy going, and at UCLA under no pressure to produce a lot. But it was essential to get the lab control system designed and built.
The lab at UCLA, unlike the one at Harvard, had only one experimental chamber for subjects. We also had the then new DEC-11 computer (moved from Harvard). This was a big machine but state of the art for the day. It was my job to design and build an interface from the DEC-11 to control aspects of the experimental program Dr. Shapiro was doing.
Here I had a technician, who actually built the interface, and a programmer, who I had to consult for the connections and commands from the computer to my equipment. It went quite well and eventually was fully operational. The people at UCLA were also nice, much nicer than at Harvard. Dr. Shapiro really expected me to stay (and I should have), but I was stubborn and still had one post-doctoral friend at the Harvard lab who, as I said, kept me on staff, sort of a a ghost), but unknown to the state of Massachusetts, which provided part of my salary.
Dr. Shapiro then told me about the job in
Sepulveda. I told him I had to go back for at least a month to "show my face" at
Harvard, then I would return.
As I said, when I returned I took the apartment in the Valley and sent for my girlfriend Betty to come to stay with me. This worked out fine as it had a pool and other "California" amenities, which she could enjoy during the day when I was at the VA hospital working on Dr. Shapiro's other facility. This was more primitive than UCLA - but met his contractual needs.
I considered it a sloppy job, but it worked, so everybody was happy. Except Dr. Shapiro, who really expected me to stay on his staff.
When I got back to Boston, my friend and colleague found it much to difficult to deal with the Harvard bureaucracy and ultimately moved himself to Duke University in North Carolina. So I was on my own at Harvard. I still had my shop and office so I became essentially a freelancer. I worked for other departments, but did not really like the people I worked for and made mistakes, which were unfortunate. Eventually I left and started shopping around for jobs.
I also think this is the time I met Ennio, an exchange student and neurologist from Chile, and of very similar personality to me. We became best of friends and I hung around with him and his wife a lot. Eventually she had a child, and they moved back to Chile, to which Ennio invited me, but to which I did not go. This was probably around 1972 since I remember that Ennio was there during the monumental blizzard and even rented cross country skis (when I bought mine), and we flopped around in a local park, since all business were closed for several days while the National Guard dug us out.
CALIFORNIA (after moving there)
I moved to California (where I am writing this) in the spring of 1989. When I arrived I moved into a motel not far from where I live now. I thought of looking for work here, but there were no positions for technical writers. Then my nephew by marriage Steve, being a union man and active in his local asked me if I would like to make some money by being a paid picket very nearby. I said sure, why not, and so walked a picket line for several months getting paid a decent amount for walking and talking.
But when summer came the temperature started to approach 105° I had to quit, I couldn't handle that no matter how much water we had. By then I had rented an apartment down the block from where we were striking. I had a home.
Soon I noticed a place just two blocks away that was a public agency to help people find work. I went there. It was called:
East Bay Works
Aside from social services it had banks of PCs on which
clients looked for work at designated websites. They also made their resumes on
the PCs using MS Word. When I told them that what I was looking for was a
job involving PCs (having no idea that was a ticket to work there), I was hired
on the spot.
They needed a tutor to help non-computer literate clients, etc. So I was all set. I wanted to work 1/2 time but was glad to work the late night shift on the one night they were open late. This lasted about two years, but then office politics became hot and heavy and I was let go - actually my funding was not renewed.
That was the last job I had after which I
retired completely except for some tutoring I did as a library volunteer.
