 |
| King John J Bratsakis Sr |
It's hard to believe today, but a 50 year old man adopting a PC was pretty bleeding edge in 1988. Dad had to rescue his new company from a previous project. He purchased Lotus 1,2,3 to lay everything out. He kept everything on spreadsheets until his mid-70s.
As the PC world moved from DOS to Windows, things got more challenging. Dad was a pure engineer and the less structure, multi-tasking Windows created issues for him. He liked the DOS structure. I get a phone call, and yes this is a true story, it goes like this:
"Jim, I can't figure this damn thing out. I think it's installed wrong. It keeps asking me to hit the 'any key' and I can't find it."
Me: "Dad, it's not really a key, it just says hit 'ANY' key."
Dad: "I KNOW THAT! I can't find it. You're mother or brother must have been on here."
Me: "Dad, John's not living at home and mom hasn't figured out how to turn it on yet. Just hit any key."
Dad, now frustrated and raising his voice: "That's why I'm calling you Jim, just forget it, I'll get someone..."
"Dad, hit the space bar."
"Jim, that took care of it. I still can't find the 'any' key. Can you come over and help me load the software?"
"Sure dad." So, I saunter over to Mom and Dad's and start configuring the computer. Dad, looking over my shoulder, still trying to find the 'any' key' gives me a stack of software to load. No problem, it was time consuming. I spent about 8 hours loading software. Dad and Mom were very grateful. When I got home, I decided to have fun and send an invoice to dad for my time. I never heard a word about the invoice. Then, I receive a package in the mail. It was about an inch thick. Dad had sent me all of my student loan receipts that he had paid. There was a cover 'note' that said:
"I'll happily pay your invoice when you pay me for these receipts and show me where the 'any key' is. The space bar is not the 'any key'."
Well played dad!
No comments:
Post a Comment