Dad was an Air Force officer. We moved around a lot, but not as much as some. I define the stages of my early life by where I lived.
My earliest memories are of the house we lived in in Holyoke. I remember painting my tricycle seat green, eating cucumbers straight out of the garden, a nice older couple across the street (I got in trouble for going over there alone) and a toy steamroller. (When I visited in 1976, I was surprised at how small the house was...isn't everyone :)
In the winter I remember the snow being over
my head, not that my head was all that high.
Family legend says that at least once the snow
drifts were so high that Dad had to climb out
of a second story window to go to work.
I remember watching
"The Friendly Giant"
(1)
(2)
"Fireball XL-5"
(1)
(2)
(3)
and some children's show in french on television.
Once I got in trouble for stealing a rose from
the next block of houses to give to my mom.
Our basement was finished in a really funky
wallboard. Orange with musical instruments,
sort of a jazz theme. It was like that when
we got there, I wonder who did it.
I started school at Harmon elementary. I
was really too young for kindergarten, but
preschool was full, so kindergarten it was.
I learned to read on Dick and Jane.
Family legend: Dad split the cost of a gross
of condoms with another lieutenant. They were
the "coin" type. I woke Mom one morning and
said, "Mommy these are crummy balloons". I'd
tried to blow up all 72.
My last memory of Canada is being in the bathroom
at the airport. I heard airplane engines starting
and ran out crying "don't leave me". I don't
remember whether I remembered to zip up or not :)
Two of the record albums Dad bought in Newfoundland
saw much play in the years to come, "Singalong Jubilee"
and
Catherine McKinnon "Voice of an Angel". When I
left for college, I recorded four albums from Dad's
collection, these two and two by Billy Edd Wheeler
(Voice of an Angel is available from
CD-Now")
I attended Wake Robin elementary school, kindergarten
thru the first week of 5th grade. I had to repeat
kindergarten because I wasn't old enough. They
taught me to read again.
While I was in the third grade, a wing was added to
Wake Robin. Half the school had to attend Birchcrest
elementary via bus. I hated Birchcrest and I hated
riding the bus. To this day, I think bussing kids
is needless cruelty.
Third grade was also the year I stopped going by
Charlie and started using Nelson. I attribute much
of my later academic success to this change. I
think the teachers unconsciously assumed a kid with
a name like Nelson must be smart, treated me as if
I was smart and eventually I lived up to expectations.
This theory is probably baloney, but it's mine.
Fourth grade I had one of my best teachers, Mrs.
Cadwallader. After my parents, she was probably
the biggest influence on my love of reading and
Science. We were reading from Skylines, the
highest 5th grade reader.
In 1968, my sister Tricia was born. I thought
she was pretty neat.
In 1969 Dad was assigned to Thailand for a year.
This was probably the most difficult year
for my family of my young life. Mom was under a
lot of stress and inevitably, some of that stress
made its way to us.
In 1970, we moved to base housing adjacent to
Carswell, 224 Billy Mitchell if I recall correctly.
I attended Monnig Middle School, 6th through 8th
grades. Once again I had to ride the bus. Better
get out of school fast so you could get a seat near
the front of the bus or you had to sit in the back
with the "tough" kids.
In 1973, we moved to on base housing, on McRoberts
St. The house with the hole in the wall. It
was a duplex converted into a four bedroom by
cutting an arch between the two living rooms. This
resulted in a long hallway that just begged for
sliding in your socks. I had one of the former
master bedrooms, biggest bedroom I ever had.
Perhaps the biggest advantage was that for the first
time, Karen and Tricia did not have to share a bedroom.
The sibling rivalry had been a bit intense before, but
now they were at opposite ends of the house.
So we wouldn't have to change schools, Karen and I
rode our bikes off base every day to catch the bus
near our previous home. After a while, we got smart
and made a friend nearer the gate so we didn't have
to bike so far.
Our last summer at Carswell, I took my first computer
class. Apparently the computer centre had a fire
just before class began. We ended up using ancient
even then Friden 5610s. But I fell in love anyway.
It was at Madison that I began my love affair with
languages. I took Latin as a sort of college prep
class. Suddenly, all that English grammar teachers
had been trying to drum into me for years made sense.
I understood the difference between adjectives and
adverbs for the first time. The next year, I doubled
up and took both Latin and Spanish. With a year of
Latin under my belt, Spanish was a breeze. I sat
near the back of the first row. A senior who sat
near the front at the other side of the classroom once
told me, "When you write an answer on your paper,
30 seconds later I copy it from the guy next to me"
It was at Cooper that I met the three people who
would be my closest college friends. Shelly Stewart,
Phil Roberts and James Wells. Shelly and Phil lived
on my street, we formed the nucleus of a sort of nerd
herd. Most afternoons after school, we would gather
at one or another of our houses and play
Acquire for hours on end and listen to Bill Cosby
records. In the summer, we built model rockets and
launched them in the field behind my house.
Woodbridge was such a small school it was pretty easy
to make a name for myself. I got some laughs doing
the Bill Cosby monologues I'd filled my head with in
Abilene. I was the class "brain" (pardon me if I'm
overly proud that Mr. Brooks had to throw out my
chemistry scores before figuring the curve). I was
pretty nerdy, I wore not one but two calculators on
my hip. One was better for chemistry and the other
better for trig.
At the beginning of 1977, I got my hands on a computer
again. It was an InterData minicomputer (model 16/32
if I remember correctly). Three clunky old teletypes
with paper tape readers. Since I was pretty much in
Mr Brook's good graces, he let me loose on the computer.
I spent hours typing in BASIC programs from People's
Computer Club tabloids. I learned enough to "teach"
a computer class the next year (OK, so technically,
it was independent study, but I was in charge)
I met the future Mrs Barber-Bishop, Patti
while playing guitar in one of the stairwells
at the dorm. We married in May of '81 between
my junior and senior years. I surprised my
mother by not dropping out.
I worked for the stereotypical absent minded
professor my last two years of college. I
used to have to remind him to go teach his
classes. I was one of the few undergraduate
research assistants, shared an office with
a couple of grad students. Even had one of
the rare computer terminals. I finished college
in four years and graduated with honors. (They
tightened up the Computer Science curriculum
the year after I left :)
As Patti neared graduation, she became more and
more distant. The marriage ended after only
three years.
I met my second wife, Margo Carr on a computer
dating board. We bought a house together in '85.
A few months later, I got caught in one of the
layoffs that were such a part of the Execucom
exeperience. I took a job at Lockheed's Austin
division and married Margo in '86.
I was surprised at the quality of the people I
worked with at Lockheed, but I hated the secrecy.
I spent only 14 months at Lockheed before
jumping at the chance to return to Execucom.
The triple whammy hit with the death of my
father, another layoff at Execucom and Margo
filing for divorce all within a few months.
In my leisure time, I am a terminal techie.
I play games, surf the net or hang out on IRC
for hours on end. When I have extra money, I
buy and refurbish old computers to give away.
I have an abiding interest in the history of
technology, especially computers. For a while,
I collected vintage radios. I still have a
decent collection, but I don't really maintain
or use them anymore. I've moved on, now I collect
rotary phones of all things.
In July of 2002, I was online late one night. An online acquaintance was
complaining about her situation, no job, moved back in with the parents, etc.
I was just about to start work on the floors in my spare room. "You can have
my spare room" I offered as I often did. But to my surprise, she accepted my
offer.
Sonja arrived in Austin in early August. From the beginning, we got along
very well. And we just grew closer as time went on. We were and are the best
of friends. She used my home as a safe place to get her life in order and
grow stronger.
A year later, Sonja had to return to Phoenix for personal reasons. I was sort
of in limbo. Although we were the best of friends, we had never quite worked
out whether there was romance between us. For a while, it seemed like Sonja
would be able to return to Austin in just a few months. But alas, it didn't
work out that way.
The next day, the price of my stock options jumped up about 5 dollars after
being stagnant for months. "Could this be a sign?" I thought about it all
day and all night. The next morning, I sold all my options.
That afternoon, I went for my review. My manager was looking rather somber,
sort of, "I hate giving a bad review, but I have to do it."
"Did you read the copy of your review I sent you?"
After saying "What?" and "Are you sure?" a few times, he threw away the
review with, "Well, I guess we don't need this anymore!"
Once my final two weeks at NI were over, my mental health improved
tremendously. I started losing weight because I wasn't stress eating. It took
me about three months to get everything ready and say my goodbyes to Austin.
I moved to Phoenix and shared an apartment with Sonja.
Phoenix was an interesting experience. Yes indeed, it is hot as hell.
You learn to stay indoors during the day and only go out at night.
We were lucky to have some terrific neighbours in George and Peggy North.
We shared a nice shaded patio with them. Many an evening we would sit
outside sipping beerz and just chatting. Though George and I don't
agree on a lot of things, especially when it comes to politics, I am
proud to call him my friend. And Peggy is just a delightful woman
with a very infectious laugh.
I also got to spend some time with Sonja's son. Whew, that kid has
some energy! Tough to keep up with. And the typical little boy's
attention span...always ready to jump to the next activity. That is
until I discovered his passion. Give him a shovel and a big sandbox
and he will happily spend hours digging and building forts and roads!
The best thing about Phoenix was taking classes at Estrella Mountain
Community College. I hadn't been to school in over 20 years. But
I kicked ass! I only missed one question on one test in Psychology.
Even in Accounting I managed to pull an A.
A couple of months after I returned to Austin I tripped going around
the corner toward my front door. Busted my ankle seven ways from
Sunday. Spent 3 months reduced to hopping wherever I went. When I
was finally able to walk again it was such a joy!
So now, I am in the final stages of recovering from the broken ankle.
I'm hoping to find a job before I have to cash in my 401k. And
after all that...I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up :)
Copyright © 1998, Nelson Bishop, Last Updated - 10/20/1998 1:21:00 PM
Harmon AFB, Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada
Soon after my sister Karen was born, Dad was
transferred to Harmon AFB, Newfoundland, Canada.
Canada was great. We lived in a long block of
homes that connected via the basements. Also
in the basement were barred storage areas for
each home. They made great jail cells for our
games of sherrif and bad guy.
Offutt AFB, Bellevue, Nebraska
Dad's next assignment was Offutt AFB in Nebraska.
We lived off base in Bellevue, 806 Bellevue Blvd So.
This was to be the longest we lived in one place.
Carswell AFB, Ft Worth, Texas
We moved to Ft Worth, Texas in 1970 in anticipation
of Dad's next assignment. We lived off base for a
year and I attended E. Ray Elementary. They didn't
know what to do with a 5th grader who had already
read Skylines. But heaven forbid they let me do
6th grade work. Instead, they kept me "on grade
level" by having me waste time working thru some
SRA reading program. Sorry if I sound bitter, but
I can't help but wonder where I'd be today if I
hadn't had the misfortune of spending six years in
four substandard Texas public schools.
Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas
In 1974, we moved to Dyess AFB, Abilene Texas. I
attended Madison Jr High and Cooper High.
RAF Woodbridge, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England
What can I say, RAF Woodbridge was without a doubt the
best place we were ever stationed. In spite of some
family frictions, in spite of being cut off from American
culture, in spite of teenage angst, in spite of being
in the middle of nowhere, far from the nearest city,
in spite of everything,
Woodbridge
was the best.
University of Texas at Austin
After Woodbridge, I attended the University of
Texas at Austin. My closest friends were some
brats I knew from Dyess AFB in Abilene.
Execucom Systems Corp, Austin,Texas
After college, I worked for Execucom Systems
Corp, writing financial planning software
for the early IBM pc. Looking back, Execucom
was a big mistake, a company in a long slow
decline, but in all I spent 7 years there.
National Instruments, Austin, Texas
I found a job at National Instruments
within a few weeks. I wrote support software
for the test and measurment industry.
Phoenix
My first day of work 2004, I received a courtesy email from my manager. "Your
Bperformance evaluation will be unsatisfactory." I was rather depressed.
That's not
to say I didn't deserve it, I had been a total slacker. I was not looking
forward to six months under the microscope and working my butt off for a
better review.
"No. Are you going to pay me to quit?"
"What!?"
"Are you going to pay me to quit?"
"What? No! At least not yet"
"That's OK, I quit anyway!", and handed over my letter of resignation.
Return to Austin
But Austin was calling me home. Due to a variety of cicumstances, the
stock option money ran out faster than expected. My house refused to sell,
so I was paying mortgage in Austin and rent in Phoenix. It was time to
regroup. As soon as I finished fall classes, I moved back to Austin.
Sonja joined me there (actually she went first and had the house nicely
decorated by the time I got there).
Westover
Harmon
Offutt
Carswell
Dyess
Woodbridge
UT
Execucom
National Instruments
Phoenix
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