L. Wattage and the late Mrs. Wattage wed barely two years before, left the UK for a life in Canada. We stayed ten years, it seemed longer than that at the time (a single Canadian winter seems to last almost a lifetime). Some recent work reminiscences have led me back to the slender dusty records of those distant days.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were both 14 years old that year, and even Clive Sinclair and Ed White had a few more years to go before they came up with the four-function hand held calculator. There were slide rules, logarithm tables and a lot of paper (there still is a lot of paper, maybe more than there used to be when it was produced slowly by a teletype or typewriter) and it seemed to me back then that only important stuff got to be written down, the day-to-day stuff vanished unrecorded into the past.
I worked for barely four years in Britain. Two years for the MOD at R.A.R.D.E. Fort Halstead (near Sevenoaks, it always sounded vaguely wild-West to me)
Followed by two years at Plessey Radar at Addlestone (near Weybridge). At both jobs I worked on military systems that later saw long service.
At RARDE I worked for a field trials team testing a tracking system for a short-range, wire-guided, anti-tank missile (‘nuf hyphens for you there?) for the British Army, it was a dream job for a young lad, I got to travel around the country to various test sites, Larkhill, Pendine and a number of deserted airfields, and blast missiles or missile rocket motors down the fairway to see if they could be detected, tracked and controlled in a variety of weathers, the answer on many occasions was “almost”. But we did get it right in the end.
At Plessey I worked on a large air-transportable military radar system that I only recently learned saw almost twenty years service with the RAAF.
Ancient history you may rightfully quip, but both these systems were at least to my youthful mind, state-of-the-art, and thinking back from a lifetime at the pointy end of technology I still believe they were. What’s more they were conceived, designed and built in Britain and as far as I remember they were delivered on time and within budget.
Integrated circuitry and microelectronics were in their infancy, stuff had to be designed at the individual component level. In the workplace, I don’t remember any “Team” meetings, and there was no such thing a “Mentor”. I had a succession of bosses, some better than others but all pretty smart people, most were easy enough to respect and learn from. There was not much talk of “Goals” or “Objectives” (and certainly none of “stretch goals”) but stuff got done and it was mostly done right.
What happened?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Well said, Sir! I spent the last few years of my working life attending meetings of all sorts, technical, quality, brainstorming, team bonding, management ,you name it! All the people who attended the meeting, who were capable of doing anything useful (I modestly like to include myself here) played Bullsh*t Bingo throughout the meeting, then went and did what they were going to do anyway! What a waste of time!
“L. Wattage and the late Mrs. Wattage wed barely two years before, left the UK for a life in Canada.”
LW – That is the most telling comment for me. Excuse me for asking, but is it some anniversary? The rest is everyday life.
God bless.
OZ
On this day 42 years ago Bravo was preparing to deploy on his first FTX (Field Training Exercise,) where he learned two things: 1. He had the potential to be a good soldier and, 2. Never, ever, get separated from your sleeping bag!
LW & FEEG – agreed!
It all started, as I remember, with “Value Engineering”, followed swiftly by “Quality Engineering”, followed by “Quality Plans” and the demolition of offices in favour of open plan and “flat organisational structures”.
Then the rot set in … 😦
In August 1969, it was winter in Rhodesia, so that meant rugby, albeit at a junior level, U13 A to be precise. We were unbeaten that year all except for a touring team from Cape Town. New Maths had just been introduced to the school curriculum, so we had to learn all about Venn diagrams, Sets and so forth instead of traditional algebra and geometry. I have always been deeply resentful about that. For those who never had to waste some of their most important years studying it, read more about it and some of the criticism here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math
We had an English Teacher, who spent two terms making us analyse, every word, phrase, sentence, figure of speech, concept etc in ‘The Pearl, by John Steinbeck. I regarded him as my favourite teacher, though sadly he died 3 years later of cancer. As a result, I read nearly all Steinbeck’s books, and a classmate vowed that he would never read another. He admitted to me just the other day that he never has though he now teaches at public school in England.
Damn, if I had the chance I would edit that last para. ‘As a result’ x 2.
Is that OK, if not let me know. No apostrophes were harmed during this edit 🙂 LW
FEEG: Power Point has a lot to answer for, why did anyone think an 84 slide presentation, could be useful.
OZ: Of the union, yes, September 9, 1967. ” A day to be marked with a white stone” is an old Welsh saying, or maybe Irish.
Of the separation, December 5, 2008. A different stone altogether, It does not get better, just different.
Go in peace OZ. ” May no new thing arise” Spanish maybe?
Bearsy: For me several unsuccessful iterations of “Matrix Structure” finally prevented any effective work.
Sipu: I thankfully missed “New Math” and similar experiments, rote learning was the mainstay of my school years. It started with the multiplication tables delivered in a Gregorian chant by the whole class looking like a bunch of undernourished monks, the stab of a stern finger set off the occasional solo, (usually around seven times six). Then geometry theorems were got by heart, and Sine, Cos, Tan, just like poetry and French and Latin verbs. Amazing how much sticks even in the dullest mind if repeated often enough.
“It does not get better, just different.”
Six years on my sentiments exactly and peace to you too, LW. Despite how it may seem now you are a lucky man. I only got 25 years.
When are we going to see the hurricane piccies?
🙂
OZ