Take a letter, please

I just got a new Toshiba lap top computer. It is really nice and I am starting to get used to it. One of the new aspects of this lap top is that there is a ten key pad. It means that the alphabet pad is a little offset from the center of the screen so I am just starting to get used to it. When I saw the ten key pad, I could not help but think about Mom. The pad would have made her job when I was a teenager so much easier.

After high school in Medicine Hat, Muriel completed a business program. She learned how to do Gregg shorthand and to type. She worked as a typist for many years. When she worked at St. Hubert Air Force base close to where we lived in Longueuil, Quebec, she was a statistical typist. That meant that she was fast and competent at typing numbers on reports. If you look at a keyboard, you will see all of the numbers across the top of the keyboard. In those days there were no keyboards that included a ten key pad.

While we were living close to Montreal, Muriel took a night course in which she learned how to do key hole punching. The cards with rectangular slots cut into them were the first step towards businesses becoming computerized. Muriel always kept up with what was happening in the business world. When she moved to Everett, Washington in 1967, she was able to get a job working for the Northern Pacific Railroad (it later became the Burlington Northern)as a key punch operator. She worked on the evening shift from 3 in the afternoon until 11 p.m. I worked from 8 to 5 and I really missed being at home at the same time that she was.

Over the years, I have had moments when I have thought, "Wow, wouldn't Mom love this new genealogy program!" or " wouldn't she love this new computer program!" Then I remember that she is living these days in a place that must have the most phenomenal technology.