I meet a computer

Having worked for 3 years at Ford Tractors I applied for a transfer to the Computer Centre at Head Office at Warley in 1968. I passed the aptitude test and I was accepted. It was my first encounter with a computer. In those days a computer could fill a very large area. A printer, for example, was almost the size of a small car and was extremely noisy. We used IBM 360's which were run from tapes initially like those in the background here, but first the data often came on punch cards which were converted onto tape on a smaller computer. While I was there the disk drives made their first appearance. The disks were like a stack of LP's and were pretty heavy. I was not allowed to control the IBM 360's of course (done by a keyboard but without a screen, the data was printed on paper).      I started as a tape loader (each machine had about a dozen tape drives which had to be constantly changed) I progressed to a 1401 and then to a slightly larger system. When the photo above was taken I was working on data transmission. No internet in those days of course, but data was sent down the telephone line to the Ford Plants at Langley, Halewood, Southampton etc.

This isn't the actual one, but this is pretty much what it was like.

Eventually we had a more advanced machine to send data to Cologne. A 1 day course was arranged for myself, and some others, in Cologne. We were due to fly out on Ford's own plane from Stanstead, which was a relatively small airport in those days. Having never flown before I was quite excited.
When I got up at 5am to get ready to drive to the airport on a Winter's morning. I looked out only to discover that between my car and the road was about 2 feet of snow. I tried to dig my way out but it was soon obvious I wasn't going to make it in time. I had my doubts that the flight would be able to leave anyway. However it did leave and when I arrived at the computer centre at Warley later that morning I discovered that someone else had gone in my place.

Another course was arranged for me, but this time at Daventry, which was not quite so exciting as a flight to Cologne. We later attempted to send data to Dearborn (part of Detroit) in the USA. However that didn't work. I assume the line wasn't good enough.

I remember the photo above being taken of me in 1969, but didn't really know what it was for until I got a copy of the booklet "Ways into Ford". 42 years later I still have it, and think of it as my little claim to fame.

3D Pictures Aren't So New!

This isn't so much about the subject, which I believe is the wedding of my Uncle Walter and Aunt Madge sometime during the First World War, judging by the uniforms of the groom and my Uncle Ernie at the back. It is more about the type of photograph.

Recently the BBC have broadcast some programmes in 3D on the HD channel. I havn't got a 3D TV so what I could see were two images on the screen side by side. What it immediately reminded me of was some old pictures we used to have that looked similar. This is one of them. We had a wooden device with a double eyepiece and a place to put the picture about 12 inches away. It was called a Stereoscope Viewer





It looked pretty much like this one , featured in a picture that I have found online. It just goes to show that nothing is really new. The principal of taking two pictures from two cameras from slightly different angles was established at least 100 years ago.

Magic Moments - An Honorary Brownie

This picture shows some of the West Horndon Brownies and Guides in  August 1959. I know this as Brown Owl (Mrs Went) shown here on the far left kindly wrote on the back of the original photograph. I wish more of my old photos were marked like this, it would make identification so much easier. Among the Brownies was my sister Linda (aged 11) back Row 2nd from the right.

The memory that this always brings to mind relates to the previous year (1958). The Brownies and Guides went away to camp each summer, but it wasn't under canvas. In 1958 they stayed at a boarding school in Banstead, Surrey during the school holidays. On this occasion not only was my sister going, but also my mother (Eileen Fuller) as a helper. For me there were two alternatives, one - to stay at home and endure the perils of my Dad's cooking, or two - become an honorary Brownie for the week and go off to Banstead with them. A pretty easy decision for me really, as a thirteen year old lad the thought of going away with all those girls was the obvious choice.

At the school all the Brownies and Guides had chores to do each day, and my designated chore was putting coke on the boiler, presumably for hot water as this was the end of July and the weather was warm.

However, as easy as that task seemed I didn't always do it, and my memories of that week are of playing tennis and spending quite a bit of time listening to the England v New Zealand Test Match on the radio.

In the main hall of the school was a stage, and being a nosey so-and-so (I still am) I had to investigate a cupboard in the side of the stage. I found a wind-up gramophone and one 78 rpm record. Fortunately it was a double A-side. Perry Como singing Catch a Falling Star and Magic Moments, which we played incessantly for a week. Whenever I hear either of those songs now I still think of that holiday with the Brownies at Banstead. Magic Moments indeed!

If you would like to hear Magic Moments here is the YouTube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7V4AD9D1XQ

Beatlemania

In 1963 (I think) I was a member of The Hornets Youth Club at West Horndon. One of our group outings was to the New Musical Express Poll Winners Concert at The Empire Pool, Wembley (now Wembley Arena). We didn't know it at the time but we were watching a bit of history. On the bill were The Beatles,  Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Billy Fury, Dusty Springfield and Gerry and the Pacemakers plus other big names of the time. I don't suppose there were many occasions when such "big names" were on the same stage on the same day. This photograph was published in the Daily Mirror and shows half a dozen members of our group. The 19 year old lad you can see on the right is me, and next to me my wife-to-be Pauline.
Next to her is one of the Club Leaders with his fingers in his ears, not because he didn't like the music, but because of the deafening screams coming from most of the girls in audience. The three main subjects of the photo are girls from our party, whose faces I remember but  whose names I have mainly forgotten, although the one on the Left was named Leftley.

This link to YouTube shows the 1965 concert but will give you a good idea what it was like


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGWmofOiNJs

Every Picture Tells a Story - The Studebaker and the Grand National

This is my fourth blog and is based around my own family history. It will not be in any particular order but will be more of a lucky dip from my photo archives. When I say "archive" what I actually mean is an untidy drawer full of old photographs. I will try to select pictures that I actually know something about. Those taken in my own lifetime will be a bit easier as I was probably there. Pictures taken pre-war will rely on stories I have been told by others.

This first picture was taken just before World War II probably in 1939. It shows my father, Fred Fuller, at a time when he was working as a Chauffeur. The car is a Studebaker. In the USA where it was built it was called the Studebaker Dictator, however this was a sensitive time and "Dictator" had connotations that weren't acceptable here, so in the UK it was known as the Studebaker Director.
It belonged to someone who's name I don't know, but I recall my father telling me that the chap owned at least one racehorse. On one occasion my father drove his employer to Aintree for the Grand National where he had a runner. Unfortunately the horse fell at the first fence.

Here is a link to YouTube showing the race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=bY5OUQNYq_8