Oct. 03, 2007 - 23:32 MDT

COMPARISONS

I was using the little hand held computer tonight and got around to remembering when I worked at the D&RGW / CRI&P freight house during World War Two.

On the day shift they had four ladies, very dignified and professional ladies, who had this curious characteristic of holding a pencil in the fingers of one hand while punching buttons on this esoteric machine.

It was called a Comptometer and the main body had nine rows of keys both ways, a square passel of keys. It also had some buttons along the side that had functions that were never explained to me. Those were the calculators of the day. The ladies were so very rapid in their work and the paper they were finished working on piled rapidly.

Now some of work I did an adding machine was used, one that would print the figures out on tape. It was handy as I could compare the tape against the paper work. Ah, but I coldn't work at the speed those ladies did.

In my mind I compared them to the ladies who took dictation by Gregg Shorthand. They could keep up with their boss's rapid fire words with ease.

Some folks had talent, the rest of us just slogged along doing the best we could.

Never in my life have I ever been able to type as fast as the billing clerks at the frieght house. They were paid piece work rates and their typewriters were minature maching guns, or at least sounded like them.

The world of electronics and computers has eliminated many of the machines of yore, but I can't help but make COMPARISONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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