Chapter 6 - New Job

My main criteria for getting a full time job with benefits was actually quite selfish. I wanted to get married. During the winter of 1967 our church youth group had finished decorating the Fellowship Hall for our annual Christmas party. We were in the middle of a severe snowstorm and the roads were barely passable. Being one of the youth leaders, I had just completed driving three of the youngsters and another leader to their homes and I was now alone in the vehicle. While returning home I was unable to negotiate a curve in the road and had an automobile accident. There were four other separate accident victims in the Emergency Room when I arrived. My doctor had already arrived but there were no available nurses to assist with the stitches necessary in my knee. So I ended up assisting. I was sent home the next morning but had to return a week later. My knee had swollen and was severely infected. This was the first time I remember fearing that perhaps I was remiss in maintaining total control of my diabetes. A couple of days later, still in the hospital, I was again on the road to recovery.

One afternoon about 2:30 PM I noticed one of the Aides coming into work. She had a beautiful smile and I wanted to meet her. Once I had, it was obvious I was hooked. Maybe she wasn't a beauty queen but I found she was more beautiful on the inside than anyone I had ever met. She and I really hit it off. Joann introduced me to her parents, and the next summer, I started working for her father in his lawn care and maintenance business. Her Dad treated me royally from the first day. Whenever I needed extra carbohydrateˆ we would go to our favorite snack shop and have coffee and a snack or lunch. After two weeks he could tell when I started going low and would 'take a break'. My relationship with Joann increased and we began talking about futures.

Before we could get married I needed a full time job with medical benefits. I applied at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York, and was interviewed for a 'Computer Operator' position. As an equal opportunity employer Brookhaven had no problem with my application stating I had diabetes. I passed my aptitude test, was hired, and began working straight days until I was trained and then was moved to a team working Dupont shifts. This is seven days working 4PM to midnight, two days off, seven days working midnight to 8AM with three days off, then seven days working 8AM to 4PM with two days off. I couldn't get my diabetes regulated working Dupont. After six weeks I had lost fifteen pounds and was having problems with high blood sugars. My doctor wrote me a medical excuse to get me back on a straight shift. I came to enjoy the 4PM to midnight shift with its 15% differential. I was on this shift for nearly five years.

Having previously graduated from the Electronic Programming Institute of Smithtown, I had some computer programming training. This became extremely valuable when I interviewed for a position as a member of the Systems Programming Group within our building. I was only the second operator to advance from Operations to another group within the computing facility.

You old-timer computer literates might develop nostalgia reading this. My computer job started with "tab" machines: key punch, printers, reproducers, collators, sorters, all using (or creating) old-fashioned punched IBM data cards. The holes in these cards comprised 'hollerith' code. I became proficient at reading this code just by looking at the punched holes in the cards. If you remember a couple of years ago, Florida had a problem in an election tabulating returns because of a "chad" problem. Chad is the name given the tiny pieces that are removed from the data cards. We worked with Calcomp equipment and I became an expert with India Ink graphs. Storage was comprised of either magnetic tape or hard disk. The first tapes I worked with were 200 bits per inch (bpi). Other density included 556 bpi and 1600 bpi. Later tape drives were 6250 bpi. Disks were large and cumbersome. We backed up data at that time to large removable disks, the Control Data 841 diskpack. Note: today, the PC in my home has more data storage than twenty of these diskpacks put together and I can hold my PC disk in the palm of my hand.

I have many fond memories from my experience of working at Brookhaven National Laboratory since April 1968. While a computer operator for the first six years, during the time I was working the midnight to eight shift, the shift was slowly coming to an end. The computer center had a raised floor with air conditioning coming through vents in the tiles. Around six-thirty I noticed what looked like animal hair coming from one of the vents. But it seemed as if it were stationary rather than floating up into the room. Grabbing a floor puller I removed a 24" x 24" section of flooring and a cat jumped out and scampered away. A few minutes later, one of the programming staff approached us asking where we had found his cat. He had been working late the night before, fell asleep in his office and the cat that he had brought from home, just to have company, had escaped from his office.

One of the perks working for Brookhaven during the period we had computers from Digital Equipment Corp. was semi-annual Digital Equipment Corp. Users Society (DECUS) meetings at various locations across the country. Paul Kessler, Ed Brosnan, and I decided to go to one of these conventions in Atlanta. Seeking to save some money for the laboratory and to get a new experience, we decided to go by Amtrac rather than flying. Reserving sleeper car rooms, we were ready for the trip. These rooms contained a fold out bed that, once down, covered the room's toilet and seat. Everyone but me believed there to be no way to get the bed down from inside with the door closed. Of course, being skinny and taking up the challenge, I entered the room and closed the door. Several minutes later I opened the door from the inside while lying on the bed. I've never told anyone how I was able to do it.

At least twice during my life at Brookhaven I have been tempted to change positions. Sending out resumes on one occasion in the North Carolina area where Joann and I originally felt we would like to retire, I communicated with a company who wanted to interview me for a position. Only a few close friends at work knew about this. Receiving a phone call from a Mr. Delrae, I was engrossed in my conversation when he asked my pardon for a few moments. Seconds later Paul Kessler entered my office and, seeing I was on the phone, excused himself but before leaving said "I see you're on the phone with Mr. Delrae, I don't want to interrupt". It took nearly five seconds before it dawned on me he was pulling a prank. Later Paul, Ed Brosnan and I had a real laugh at my gullibility.

Payback is beautiful. During a DECUS trip Paul took on his own, another coworker and I rigged Paul's office. We removed all the flourescent light bulbs from his fixtures and left them stored in a box in his office. We wrapped an old fishing lure in an Italian newspaper and left it on his desk. Upon his return, of course his light switch didn't work. In the dim light, as he started unwrapping the fishing lure we began playing our cassette version of the theme to "The Godfather".

In over thirty years of working at Brookhaven I can only remember once where my diabetes really caused a ruckus. My stomach was upset that day coming to work. We had a group meeting scheduled at 10AM. I lost my breakfast at 9:55AM, yet instead of getting some carbohydratesˆ into my system I went to the meeting. Half way through the meeting I realized I was beginning hypoglycemiaˆ and made another BIG mistake. The meeting should be over soon and I'd wait 'til it was over. I was unconscious five minutes later. Coworkers called the BNL EMTs, but they were not prepared for a diabetic emergency. They prepared to transport me to the hospital which is a fifteen minute ride. I've never been leery about telling coworkers about my diabetes and one of them really came through for me. The EMTs were not allowed to give an unconscious person anything by mouth. Now that there are better alternatives, I whole-heartedly agree, but I had previously told Karl Abrams that in an emergency, he could force me to drink orange juice. Five minutes later I was fine, except for the self-incrimination and the embarassment knowing I had perpetuated a bad situation.

This incident took place in the mid 1970's. I don't believe at that time, items such as glucotabs even existed. These are tablets of fast acting carbohydrateˆ that can be taken without drawing anyones attention and would have been ideal in this situation. There also was no 'Glucagon Emergency Kit'. This is a small plastic container holding a syringe and glucagonˆ solution that can be injected into any subcutaneousˆ area of the body. Fluids should not be administered to an unconscious patient. This injection would have had the same effect as the orange juice without any possiblity of choking the patient. Since this incident there has been more formal training of EMT staff and they are now prepared for this type of emergency. To date, there are thirty+ insulin dependent diabeticsˆ who work at Brookhaven. I now carry a tube of glucotabs in my pocket at all times and have a Glucagon Emergency Kit in my desk with instructions how to use it. There are also numerous coworkers who are now trained on how to administer the injection.

Here's an incident on the more humorous side; at least as far as I'm concerned. There were many years when going to work early in the morning was a must so I would be able to test new code on a computer before it was required to be back online for 'prime-time' (08:30-17:00). Being at work at five or six in the morning was not uncommon. On this particular occasion there was a young lady coworker sharing computer time. Once I booted the computer to bring it back online, I would take my insulinˆ injection and go to the cafeteria for breakfast. Doing this hundreds of times in the past it never dawned on me that someone might be terrified of needles. Sitting at my desk with my office door open, this young lady walked into my office just as I was injecting myself. Turning as I heard her gasp, she was clutching her stomach with one hand and her mouth with the other. The look in her eyes convinced me she was about to faint. Do you think maybe I should have shut the door first?

In April, 2001 I celebrated my thirty-second year at Brookhaven. There's a magic number here at Brookhaven. When employees reach the magic number with either thirty-five consecutive years of service or have reached the age of fifty-five, they are able to retire and receive their medical insurance for life at the rate they were contributing at the time of their retirement. This magic number is seventy and is the addition of number of consecutive years service added to their age. April, 2003 will be my thirty-fifth anniversary. October, 2003 will be my fifty-fifth birthday. I intend to retire in 2003 while my wife and I are young enough to take our camper across the United States.

Psalm 104:23-NIV Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.