I had been politically active since I was 18, but I had to wait til age 21 since that was the voting age in California. However, my first voting experience was a very low-key affair and I do remember it.

My first vote using a paper ballot and a rubber "x" stamp

I got involved in politics as a college freshman at Cal Poly SLO. I was active in the Gene McCarthy for President campaign. On the night of the California primary, I went to the San Luis Obispo McCarthy headquarters, hoping for a victory party, but it turned out much different.  That night, Robert Kennedy won, and then was assassinated.  All of us were in stunned disbelief, wondering what was coming next. It turned out that the riot in Chicago at the Democratic Convention was the next act. I was in California, watching on television with my mother, wondering if America was going to survive.  After that, I did some more political work, but at a lower intensity. As a chemistry major, I had lots of studying to fill my time.

I transferred to San Jose State University in 1969, but I kept my permanent address at Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo County.  I turned 21 in late June of 1970.  This made me eligible to vote in the general election of 1970, but not the June primary.  I would frequently visit my family in Arroyo Grande when I attended San Jose State.  On an October visit, I registered to vote at the city hall and inquired what was the procedure to get an absentee ballot for the November 3rd election. The registrar official told me I could cast an absentee ballot today if I desired.  After answering yes, she handed me a paper ballot and a rubber stamp that would affix an “x” to my choices.

I do not remember many of the issues I voted on that day. I do remember voting against Ronald Reagan for his second term as California’s governor, and I am sure I voted against our very conservative federal congressional representative.   I lost on both counts.  I voted against Reagan in the future and lost again.

I still vote in each election and occasionally contribute money and time to local candidates.  Some win, some lose. However, this last election, while not a win, certainly was better than I expected.  With some votes still uncounted and an election in December, I certainly am hoping for the best.

Learning to cook was a three time process for me.  The first time when I was seven and  got a basic junior cookbook from my cousin.  The second time was when I was in Boy Scouts as an eleven year old.  Finally, when I started college, some roommates added to my cooking adventures.

Learning to cook with lessons from my mother, a book from my cousin, the Boy Scouts and a some college roommates

At seven years old, I had come home from the hospital and was told to take the month of November as rest and recuperation at home. A cousin of mine, Sally from Chicago sent me a beginner’s cookbook.  Simple recipes, but I got to mix up things, put them in the oven and or heat them over the stove, and see simple ingredients turn into tasty food, or at least mom and I thought it was tasty.  Of course Mom was there to make sure I did not make a significant or dangerous mistake.  My pride was the tuna casserole I made for dinner. Unfortunately, my brother John hated it and made it known that he did not want to eat it. I think he ate a little of it, but did not finish it.  While I made it a few more times, it was not the main dish.

At eleven years of age, I was now an eager Boy Scout.  I had previously been a Cub Scout and looked forward to the camp outs with the scouts.  I had just joined a new troop since we moved from Los Angeles to Santa Maria California.  It was a trough group of kids, and one had to be self sufficient. For example, minor disputes between boys were settled by having a boxing match. Today, I cannot believe that would be tolerated. While I was okay at boxing, camp out cooking was not my forte. My first camp out with the group was a quick overnight affair to Refugio Beach in central coastal Santa Barbara county.  Since it was a quick trip, every boy was to bring his own food and cooked it himself. It was a disaster for me.  Semi-raw eggs was one of the meals that I had there. It included burnt toast. Returning home, I told Mom that I needed to improve my cooking skills.  While nothing formal was done, she provided a steady hand and advice to me for basic cooking skills.

Shortly after the disastrous camp out at Refugio Beach, a new Boy Scout troop was formed in my neighborhood, and mom no longer had to take me 5 miles to the old troop.  This new troop did things right.  For each camp out, every patrol group (6 to 8 boys) planned a joint menu. A cook and work schedule for the scouts that would start the cooking fire, who would cook of each meal and the scouts that would clean up the meal was planned. Then it was off to the market, purchase the food and distribute it amount ourselves. The only problem we ran into was the clean-up crew for the meal always procrastinated in cleaning up the mess. In some ways, this was not surprising. No one likes to clean-up. The pots were made of aluminum and food stuck to them and the bottom of the pot bottom’s were black from the fire smoke. However, I certainly enjoyed this system compared to the method used by my first troop.

Finally, in college, I learned a little more cooking. A close friend of my roommate was from the Hispanic section of Los Angeles. Together, they taught me some of their cooking and dishes.

Today, I do cook more since I am single again. Due to Covid, I quit eating in restaurants. However, I am frequently cooking for one person, so I keep it simple. However, I do thank and think about my mother, my cousin and college roommates.

Planes and trains.  I certainly had my experiences that I remember, but age means the details are not the best.  My first plane ride was free, provided by the US Air Force when I was just 3 and a-half. My most memorable train ride was from Illinois to California.  Both are not forgotten, but all the details are fuzzy due to the passing years.

My first airplane flight at 3 by the US Air Force. Later, travelling coach on a train from Chicago to California

The first plane ride I remember was from Denver Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota.  My father was in the Air Force, and I had gotten very ill, bleeding internally.  I was so ill that they sent me to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver Colorado.  I don’t remember the ride to Denver, but I am sure it was by air.  At Fitzsimmons hospital, they successfully removed my spleen and the bleeding stopped. Now, it was time to come home. I remember getting on the plane in Denver at Lowry Air Force Base (this base is now closed) and flying to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City.  When mom and I got home, it was very late.  Her mother was taking care of my two younger brothers, and I asked if they could play.  I was informed that they were asleep since it was very late.  Since I had not seen them for many months, I was very disappointed.  As a side note, I have recently read that my illness was probably due to arsenic exposure.

Flying on military transport was different than commercial airlines of today. We flew on a C-47 (the military version of the DC-3).  Of course, for safety reasons, all passengers were issued a parachute.  Since I was only a toddler, they would strap me to a stretcher that had a parachute attached and throw the entire unit out the door. The chute was supposed to open after a few seconds and when I landed somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, then search and rescue was supposed to find me.  Fortunately, I did not test this procedure.  Today, they no longer give parachutes to passengers.  However, I feel that certain airlines, like Spirit, may want to adopt this idea.

My most memorable train ride as a child was with my mother and three brothers from Illinois to California in 1964.  My father was in a summer graduate program at the University of Illinois in Urbana.  At the end of the summer, the four boys and mom went to Chicago to visit her aunt and some cousins.  We took the train from Urbana to Chicago.  Urbana is in the center of Illinois, and the train goes through south Chicago.  I was shocked to see some of the houses in south Chicago and it was the first time I had seen slums and poverty in America.  It certainly contributed to my liberal political beliefs.

After the visit in Chicago, it was time to go back to Arroyo Grande California with my family.  Air fare for the four boys and mom was too much for the family budget.  That meant the train was the best option.  Of course, we went coach since roomettes would have been too expensive. It was a three-day two-night trip. I don’t know how all of us slept on the train, but we did.  At least the coach seats were significantly bigger than the coach airline seats today. Of course, mom packed plenty of food, so we avoided the trips to the dining car.  It was a grand adventure. Once we got to San Francisco, we transferred to the California coastal line and made it back to San Luis Obispo where a family friend took us the last fifteen miles to Arroyo Grande. I still do not know how mom kept her sanity for this trip.

Two things I do remember about the train ride.  The scenery on this route is spectacular.  I recently did the same ride but was able to afford sleeping accommodations for that ride.  The other thing I remember was the two young men behind us were in army uniforms, and in transit to Vietnam.  Little did I think, and I am sure most Americans, how much Vietnam would affect all of the young men around my age in the near future.

As for travel today, I still take trains and planes. I will be flying soon with the destination of New Mexico to watch my alma mater, San Jose State University, play New Mexico State University in football.  Both teams are in the Mountain West League.  The return will be by Amtrak from Albuquerque.  However, now when I travel, I get the sleeping accommodations on trains and pay for more leg room in planes.

Parking was no problem until I went to college at Cal Poly SLO.  In my freshman year, I lived in an apartment next to the campus.  In my sophomore year, I was a couple of miles away, but Cal Poly had plenty of on-campus parking, even though everyone complained about how bad the parking was there.  Yes, it might be a 10-minute walk away from the class room or lab you had to go to, but that did not seem excessive to me.

Parking, never a problem for me at college, but work at Lockheed was different.

Then it was off to San Jose State University.  There, students did have a legitimate complaint about parking.  There was only one five story parking garage, about 1,500 slots for a student population of 22,000, and there was no way it could accommodate the needs of the university.  A second parking garage was under construction, but it would not ready for an additional year.  Alternative transportation like buses was terrible.  However, I solved this problem by living within one block of the school for my junior and senior years.

My fifth year of college, finishing some senior classes and taking a few graduate classes, I lived about one-half mile from the university.  Biking to class was the best method.  However, bike theft had become an epidemic at San Jose State.  In fact, there were criminals driving vans around the campus, who would unbolt bike racks, and take five to ten bikes at a time.  Very disturbing, but the student government came up with a good solution.  At the center of the campus, they had a special bike parking area that was always monitored by an attendant.  When you entered the area with your bike, they gave you a special bike parking card.  Later, to get your bike, you had to show the card.  Bike theft became a minor problem, limited to bikes that did not park in the bike lot.  Another method some people used was to remove the bike’s seat after it was parked.

Later, in my employed life, parking was only a problem at one employer, Lockheed Martin.  The building I worked in was shaped like a big square, approximately fifty feet on each side.  Another identically shaped building was on its west side, but between them was a parking lot about the size of each building.  While the building I worked in was an “open” building, the other building did top secret work.  Therefore, the parking lot had limited access, and you had to show your employee badge to get into that lot.  The fear was that bad guys would park in that lot, and try to monitor electronic signals coming from the top-secret building.

There were a few uncontrolled parking spots in front of the building for vendors, visitors, or customers such as military officers or civilian customers such as representatives from satellite TV companies.  This worked well except for one problem.  The visitor spaces were supposed to be for visitors, but were frequently abused.  For example, my wife would come to lunch with me at the Lockheed cafeteria.  The cafeteria was very good, serving salads, fish, hamburgers to prime rib, etc. at good prices.  However, many of the visitor spots were frequently occupied by employees, particularly union employees.  We would complain, and it would be noted in their personnel file.  This was not a good thing, but the union employees would shrug it off since there were no real consequences to them for this action.  Meantime, people like my wife ended up parking in a remote lot and walking to my building.  I generally support unions and this is not a popular position for my fellow scientists and engineers. However, these actions of taking visitor parking places lessened my support of Lockheed unions.  This problem finally got solved when the top-secret building was closed during one of the personnel lay-offs that occurred around 2010.

Today, my biggest parking problems occur when I attend a popular event in the San Jose area.  However, for the last one and one-half years due to the pandemic, this has not happened.  Maybe, parking woes for me is a problem in my distant past.

I am proud that I am vaccinated against Covid-19, and many other diseases such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus, etc. Having suffered with measles, mumps and chicken pox as a child. I am glad that my sons skipped those rites of passage to adulthood. I believe that vaccination was one of the top advances in medicine in the twentieth century.

Proud to be vaccinated, and sorry so many have refused it.

Since I grew up when polio was common, I remember getting the first polio vaccine shots. Later, it was the sugar cube vaccination. The local Boy Scout troop, which I was a member, helped at the vaccination clinic.  Unfortunately, I know some of my peers that got polio, with life long consequences. Fortunately, I did not know any person who died of polio.

I wish that some of the anti-vaccination people could walk through a polio ward of the 1950s or a village that was struck by small pox in the 1800s. Maybe that would change their minds, but I am afraid too many of them think “My mind’s made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.”. The anti-vaccination people are going to prevent Covid-19 herd immunity from occurring in America.

The biggest surprise to me is Covid-19 public health measurers became a political issue. I never would have thought that I live in a country where so many people do not believe that science can solve many problems. Many politicians have used their belief to gain power, even though people have died from their actions. I wonder if these people use GPS in their cars, have radios, believe the world is flat, etc.

One close friend of mine has a 93 year old mother refuses to get the Covid-19 vaccine. While she is an African American, and America has not always done right by that minority, I don’t think that it applies in this case. My friend is a chemist and his brother is a physician, and they have not been able to convince her to get vaccinated. However, the physician’s daughter just had a baby girl. Her requirement to hold or see the baby is to be vaccinated. Time will tell if this happens.

My Covid-19 vaccination has allowed me to meet friends, eat in restaurants and attend gatherings in relative safety. It’s freedom. I hope that the anti-vaccination crowd realizes this fact. However, maybe the only way to get the anti-vaccination people vaccinated is to restrict their normal society privileges.

Inequality, something I think will always exist but I hope that there will be less of it in the future.  Due to the Black Lives Matter summer, I have done plenty of thinking about this issue.  Since I live in a town that is approximately 60 % Asian, 25 % white, and 25 % others (Hispanic, Native American, Black and others), it has been a big issue to me.

Inequality and the role of stereotypes

I believe that stereotypes are a big driver of inequality. When we encounter a person who is not like ourselves, we often believe the stereotypes since it is the simple and easy thing to do. The world is very complicated, and that makes it impossible to quickly judge all people individually. However, I have many examples where stereotypes have been proven wrong. For example, we often think of Japanese Americans as very honest, but I have known exceptions. We think of Afro-Americans as criminals, but when I was assaulted by a large white man on the BART transit system, it was two black me that defused the situation. None of the 50 other passengers came to my aid, except my girlfriend started screaming. Inequality exists for other reasons too. For example, many of my fellow college classmates in science wanted to attend the University of California (UC) for graduate school. UC admissions did not think much of graduates from San Jose State College (later San Jose State University), so they went to graduate schools in different states. It was a loss for UC and California, but was an easy way for UC to reduce the pool of applicants.

One of the few, good things the selective service draft did was mix men of all backgrounds together. They quickly learned the fastest way to success was for all men to work together. When a man would complain that he was not going to work with a ***** man, the sergeant’s answer was he only saw army green “so get over it”. I would be in favor of some sort of national service for all young citizens and immigrants. It would help the country and individuals would receive valuable life lessons.

The one idea that troubles me is we too often measure equality in terms of equity of outcome. While it is a good measure of equality, it does not always work. I was the president of a San Jose youth soccer league. We had approximately 50 boys teams and 30 girls teams. It is about the same ratio today. I would not want to reduce the league to 30 boys teams in the name of equality. That would be a loss for many youth soccer players.

In my lifetime, 71 years, I think we have made major progress in equality. Progress still needs to occur. My biggest disappointments in equality is the widening wealth gap and a widening educational opportunity gap for all Americans. I hope progress can be made in those areas soon.

Angry frustrated man with exploding head and steam coming out of his ears on dark background

Ah, my pet peeves. I divide them into pre-retirement and post retirement. Many of them overlap, so I guess I can classify some of them as double (?) pet peeves. Fortunately, I do not have many pet peeves since I am a mellow person, but some things do bother me. However, those that our pre-retirement are fading into the past.

My pet peeves.

When I was employed, meetings could become a source of frustration. Many meetings went on for three plus hours. Someone was always bringing up side issues that should have been discussed off-line. Frequently, old issues that had been discussed before came up again. One example was when I worked for a pharmaceutical firm in research and development (R&D). We  were asked to develop a specific ophthalmic ointment. The product development manager stated he would not work on the project without the proper equipment, but finance did not want to spend money . The product development manager stated that if he made it, it was a waste of time to test it for quality and long-term stability. He even stated he did not want to waste my time to do the testing. Additionally, most of us in R&D were convinced that the FDA would not accept the data. After six months, we got the equipment, costing about $2,000 (1984 dollars). Then, we developed the product.

Later, I went to Lockheed, and they had good ways to keep meetings on time. All meetings were paid for using overhead money or project money. Everyone attending the meeting charged their time to overhead or a specific project. Overhead was always scarce, so there was a minimum of those meetings. Project managers wanted a minimum of people at the meeting to keep costs low and did not want them to run over the time allotted. In my 27 years there, I was only at one meeting that ran long. At that meeting, such good progress on the project was being made that the meeting got extended. Another thing Lockheed did to keep meetings on time was some principal people at the meeting would leave at the scheduled end of the meeting, whether or not all items were discussed. I remember one meeting when our team presented a project proposal that we needed some money and time budget. We knew that the man who controlled the budget was going to leave at 11:00am, and we made sure that we had finished on time. Otherwise, our requests would not have been presented if we ran over time.

Driving has some interesting peeves too. My favorite is the car that is speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. When I was working, I frequently saw this event when I was going to work. My thought was that I wish I had such a great job and could not wait to get to work, and I was willing to endanger other people to get to this job. I was just glad he or she did not hit me.

Another pet peeve is related to wasting my time, lateness. Most of the time, it just irritates me. I try to be on time, but things can happen and I realize that fact. However, people who are habitually late bother me. My worst experience was attending the wedding of a friend’s son’s. It was in San Francisco and I live in Milpitas (next to San Jose). I planned to go there with a friend, and we agreed to leave at least one and one-half hours early. I figured it should take about almost an hour to get there, and then find parking. My friend arrived just one hour before the event at my house, we got there fifteen minutes late and missed the opening. It was a traditional Hindu wedding, and the groom arrived by horse. We missed the horse, something I will probably never see in my life.

My phone peeve is the wait on hold “all are agents are busy now, but your time is important to us”.  That’s hard to believe.  My record holder is 48 minutes done by AT&T. Not only did it take too long  before a person talked to me, they did not take off the bogus charge on my bill. I have called again, and this time they promised to remove the charges. I will see if the promise is kept.

The can deposit in California has its own problems. In California, we pay a 5 or 10 cent deposit on cans and bottles. We can get the deposit back when we return the empty can to a recycling center. Of course, you cannot return it to the store where you bought the drink. In fact, I have asked the store where is the nearest recycling center, but most often I am told “I don’t know”. Sometimes I find a recycling center on the internet, only to find it is closed the day I go there.  Frankly, most of mine cans go into landfill today, and that is probably better than using a gallon of gasoline to go to a closed recycling center.  Maybe it will be improved in the future since the system is so poor, but I doubt it will happen.

My final pet peeve is cars with no front license plate, which California requires. Before I could drive the car I recently purchased  off a dealer’s lot, I had to sign a statement that the car had a front plate (it was a temporary plate till the permanent one arrived). Why do I care about a front plate? The other day, a Tesla almost hit me in a crosswalk. A few months ago, a Mustang decided to pass over the double yellow line and almost hit me. Fortunately, I made it to the shoulder and the pickup truck in the other lane got to his shoulder, avoiding a nasty accident. However, I could have given a better description to the police, even if I saw only part of the plate. In both cases, neither car had a front plate.

I am sure I have more, but these are the big ones to me.  However, they are minor compared to some of the major problems in the world.

Coming home from a Colorado Army Hospital to South Dakota, first memories.

I was almost 4, and I was at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver Colorado. I remembered being moved to the long-term recovery ward after a major operation.  It was not a pediatric ward, that was a rare thing in an army hospital. Most of the patients were Korean War veterans recovering from their injuries.  Since I was a US service dependent, the service was my health provider.  I had gotten very ill and the physicians at my family’s home station, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, could not determine my illness. They sent me to Fitzsimmons Army Hospitals and hoped I would get better care and have the problem fixed there.  Dad stayed in South Dakota, but Mom went to Colorado.  Her mother came from Chicago to take care of my 1- and 1/2-year-old twin brothers, Jay and Teddy (John and Ed).

The army, in their infinite wisdom, gave me a three month stay in the hospital. While they felt they fixed my problem, they did not want to release me, then have me return if problems later reoccurred. During my stay, Mom visited me every day.  I am sure I looked forward to her visits. Soon, I hoped I was going home.

Finally, I was released to go home.  We were scheduled to go back to Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, a long way from Colorado.  So, air transportation was arranged via the US Air Force’s military air transport service (MATS).  I, along with my Mom and a man I don’t remember took us to Lowry Air Force Base to await our flight.  Since the flight was on Air Force C-47 or C-54 (the Air Force version of the DC-3 or DC-4), we were all given parachutes.  Of course, I was too small for any of the parachutes, so I supposed to be strapped to a stretcher and thrown out the dying plane in case of an emergency.  The chute was suppose to open a few seconds after I left the plane.  Then, some rescue crew was supposed to find me somewhere in the Rocky Mountains or maybe on top of Mount Rushmore.  Mom did not think it would work, but she had to sign consent forms releasing the Department of Defense of any liability if we wanted to get home.  Thankfully, no problems were encountered on the way home. Today, all of the service’s transport planes no longer give passengers parachutes, unless they plan to jump out of them during their flight.  Lowry Air Force Base was named after 2nd Lt. Lowry, the only Colorado pilot to die in WWI but no relation to our family. Another interesting note is most military transports now have their seats rearward facing for safety.

Finally, Mom and I arrived late in South Dakota.  Grandma was there to greet us.  My first question was where are Jay and Teddy since I wanted to see someone near my age. Grandma said they were asleep, and it was off to bed for me.  I’m sure I got a good night sleep.  Sometime in the next few days, Dad took me to a toy store, and I got to pick out a gift.  I don’t remember what gift I got. It was good to be home!

I have two interview stories. I realize the request was for a single story, but they are slightly connected. The first one came when I got laid off after fourteen years of employment at a pharmaceutical firm.  After a one year stint at a scientific instrument company, I got laid off again and went through more interviews but with more polish than the interviews I had done the year before.

How a 4 hour interview lead to a 27 year career

The first experience was being laid off from Cooper Vision’s quality assurance department.  Quality assurance is a department that all American companies hate funding and is a vulnerable  department to staff cuts when times are bad. Unknown to Wall Street, Cooper Vision was not doing well. However, Cooper Vision had put out many press releases telling Wall Street how successful they were.  I starting  interviewing and reading the want ads.  A frequently unasked question was “what is the real reason for your lay off? I understand Cooper Vision is doing well.”.  After four months, a kid on my youth soccer team told me about a friend who was looking for a chemist.  Fortunately, it went well and I was hired.

As a side note, Cooper’s 401k was just purchasing Cooper stock, around $20 per share.  I was so angry when I left Cooper, I sold all of my Cooper stock at $20 per share.  A year later, Cooper stock was selling at $2 per share.  It was one of the benefits of being among the first laid off from  Cooper Vision.

Next, I worked a year at a ten person scientific instrument export-import company. The stock market crashed in 1987, so two of the newest employees had to be let go.  However, they did get me an interview at Lockheed.

The Lockheed interview was a three part affair. An initial interview was an hour with the lab manager.  If he was happy, you got invited back.  The second interview was a four hour affair.  The third part was the company checking your references and college degrees. They also determined if you could probably get a security clearance if needed.  For that, they checked to see if you had an arrest record and looked at your credit record.

After being invited back for the four hour session, I was excited and found it an interesting experience.  First, you gave a half hour talk to the department on any chemistry subject you desired.  I had recently given a talk about epoxy adhesives, so that was my subject.  Unknown to me, they were using many epoxies, so that was a stroke of good luck.  Next there was an hour of interviews with some of the lab supervisors.  I liked them, and ended up working in both the labs they supervised.  Then, you went to lunch with some of the peers you would be working with so they could tell you the good, bad and ugly of the company. The last hour was with the lab manager to review more details about yourself and the job.

A couple of days later, one of my references told me that Lockheed had called, and he thought I would get the job.  Since I knew him well, I had worked with and for him for fourteen years, it raised my hopes.  A few days later, the Lockheed manager called and said he would be giving me a job offer contingent on Human Resources checking all the boxes that needed to be examined. He said it would take two weeks, but since I had a temporary consulting job, that worked out well. I ended up staying at Lockheed for twenty-seven years. It turned out to be a good choice, and I am enjoying their pension and 401k today.

Ah, spelling.  It has been a frustrating struggle all my life.  For my father and two of my brothers, it was always easy.  That added to my frustration. My mother understood my frustration since she was a poor speller too. She told me that when she took an open book test in college, the book she always took was a dictionary.

My struggles with spelling. Included are my early problems and a reflection on the possible reasons for my poor spelling.

My struggles started in grade school.  Rules like “‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ or when it sounds like ‘a’ like in neighbor or weight” made no sense to me. My mind got confused since there is no “i” in the word “way”.  When I had a math test and a spelling test on the same day, I only studied for the spelling test.  Generally, I got a better score on the math test. It was ironic. As they say, hard work does not always guarantee success, otherwise coal miners would be the richest people in the world.

At the beginning of most school years, I had to fill out a personal data form with my name, birthday,  date of birth, place of birth, etc.. Since I was born in Albuquerque, NM, I was always searching for a book with a map so I would spell “Albuquerque” correctly.  After a couple of years, I made it an objective to learn to spell “Albuquerque”. After I learned its spelling, my mother told me I should also know how to spell the county I was born in, Bernalilo.  Fortunately, I never had to answer that question.

Off to college.  By that time, I mastered using the dictionary. That worked most of the time. However, for my botany class, tests were the essay type written in blue books.  While I knew the science well, the instructor took points off for spelling errors. Most of the class was not impressed with this rule, especially me.  I ended up with a “B”, not an “A”.

Off to work, and my spelling became less of a problem. Most of the papers I wrote were typed by a department secretary or my secretary.  The secretaries corrected most of my spelling errors.  Later, when all the employees got personal computers, we typed our own papers.  Fortunately, the software had a spell correction feature.  Of course, I still had to be careful since the software could not tell the difference between real and “reel” errors.

I often thought about my poor spelling skills.  I blame the US Army.  When I was 3 1/2, I spent three months at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver since I was very ill.  During these  months, my mother visited me twice a day, but otherwise I was generally isolated.  The hospital did not have a separate pediatric ward.  I was in Denver even though we lived in South Dakota since my illness was initially a mystery to the physicians at the US Air Force base in South Dakota. The air force did not want to fly us home until they were sure the problem had been fixed so I stayed in the hospital for three months. Fortunately, there was no charge for the stay or air flights since I was a military dependent. However, I think that I did not learn vocal sounds well, and thus I was behind most children at that age. Then, at seven, the illness returned, and I missed two months of second grade. During that time, my peers were learning arithmetic and spelling skills.  I was able to teach myself math, but did not learn how to spell on my own.

In spite of my struggles with spelling, I feel I adapted well.  While good spelling is a valuable skill, I am thankful for dictionary.com and spell check programs.