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1961 Graduation Photo
Boy oh boy, did I have hair back then. It was a true, towering Pompadour, and if you saw the back, it was a perfect 'DA' (Duck's Ass)—exactly like Danny Zuko in Grease. We were the 'Hoods' of the 1950s, a group of guys who lived by one rule: never wear anything that would mess up the hair. I would have skipped baseball entirely if I could, simply because a ball cap was the enemy of my style.
Looking back, the 'Lucky Generation' wasn't always a smooth ride. Some of the friends I grew up with were forgettable, pulling me toward all the wrong directions. I started smoking when I was 13; why not, all my friends did. Others were good for my soul, but for a hundred wrong reasons, we drifted apart. It's a sad reality of that era—we didn't have the 'Invisible Tools' we have today. We didn't have smartphones to bridge the miles or social media to keep the flame of friendship alive. Once you walked away from those Chicago streets, you often walked away for good. What's Next?
Typing Class and the QWERTY Connection
In my senior year, I had an elective class to take, so I decided that the best thing for me was to be where the girls were: in typing class. Taking that class would allow me to speak their language. It worked; I met a gal named Donna, who was a sophomore. She was the Homecoming Queen and hot.
Maybe you need to check the photo, it was generated by Ace with his wonderful AI tools.
What's Next?
Ribbon Writer
Today, I have a totally different use for typing, and writing this book. Without the invention of the typewriter, and all the other critical inventions, like the keyboard and touchpad, we would not have smartphones or pads that are so easy to use.
This kind of early typewriter had a ribbon that the keys would strike to make a print on the paper. Great, but making mistakes meant you had to start all over or use a product called whiteout to cover the error, and then you could put the right letter over it.
QWERTY
They say some systems never change, but the tools we use to master them certainly do. Sixty-four years after that typing class, the mechanical 'strike' is gone, replaced by a Bluetooth keyboard that links invisibly to my MacBook Air, iMac, iPad, or iPhone, using QWERTY on all of them. My workspace is a high-tech 'Command Center.' I have a massive 36-inch monitor at my desk that lets me see the entire 'Streets of Chicago' journey in high definition. But I'm still a mobile operative, talking to the computer and watching it type my voice into the computer, and onto my book. QWERTY will soon be retired in the near future. When I'm traveling to see family in Washington, I can go 'Portable Mode' and use the built-in screen. Technology has finally caught up to the 'Chicago Rebel'—giving me the power of a boardroom anywhere I choose to sit.
The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard (Q W E R T Y). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to E. Remington and Sons in 1873. It became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878 and remains in widespread use.
What's Next?
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