MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1968 - Alabama Years

Computer Science

I was fed up with this crap. I was by now hooked on computers and was looking for a way out. Also, I was tired of working 50 weeks a year to take two weeks off the go visit the relatives back in Iowa. I had let the plant management and my boss back in New Jersey know there was a problem. We all found separate ways out of this situation. My boss in New Jersey wanted me to come back and work for him again. However, as much as I enjoyed working with him, neither Winnie nor I were interested in going back to New Jersey. The paper mill manager had offered me a job where I would be in charge of all instrument and electrical technicians in the entire paper mill. I would have 4 supervisors under me and about 40 technicians. I had found a third solution, one that we finally chose. I would go back to Iowa to Iowa State University and start graduate school in Computer Science with the goal of becoming a teacher at the college level. I was offered a half-time job, at half the pay I was presently making, as an engineer at Ames Laboratory. The GI Bill had been reinstated and made retroactive to the time when I was in the Air Force, so there was a second source of money. The position also came with tuition paid.