9/8/2006 -- One
Score
One score or years. That’s what I’m working on now. I started
this job back in August 1987, and just finished the 19th one. Working on 20. Only 15 more until IPERS retirement
minimum!!! Oh my, am I looking forward to that or dreading its arrival????
I’m going
through some old financial records and it’s interesting to see what memories
they trigger.
Our first office computer…$2000 back in 1991. Before that we had
a typewriter with an eraser tape cartridge that you could push a button to
erase a mistake (from the ink tape cartridge). Seems like the eraser one
emptied first.
After that, we had a typewriter with a very small screen that would display
about 4-5 words and allow you to type into that before it hit the paper, kind
of a delayed effect. Then came the computer,
publishing programs, paintbrush programs, creativity galore!!!
Fishing contests. Our first experiment into
putting trout into Kuennens quarry. We snuck them in during the dead of
night and didn’t tell anybody. Didn’t take long for a few to get caught, but
word only slowly spread at first. Then there was a fishing contest to see who
could catch a tagged trout (nobody did). We held that a few years until the interest
waned. We did have winners in catching the most fish, or the biggest
categories. It was fun to note that a father/son team took home two of the cash
prizes one of the first years. I wonder if Mark declared the financial windfall
on his taxes (I wonder if Mark will read this and laugh).
Backpacking trips. Seeing the bills and receipts brought back
those memories of traveling to Isle Royale and
Canoe trips
with boy scouts. Catching fish, showing the kids how to cook
them. Putting food way up high in trees so the bears
would not be attracted.
Bills for film and processing. Don’t use that
anymore. Pure digital photography these days. Most of
my picture taking is now digital and goes into POWER
POINT presentations. Some of my old slide shows are still used however. As hard
as you try, digital copies of film slides don’t quite equal the picture
quality. (Power point of course goes along with the increasing computer
complexity we have.) (Have we really gone through 6 different computers in that
time)?
Steak frys. It seems so familiar now but every June like clockwork
we put one on. Some of the early attendees have passed away, but many of the
regulars still come by and it’s fun to see them there.
Maple syruping. Found a bill for supplies. Going to Hanlontown to tap trees, making a sap boiler, fixing the
sap boiler, fixing the sap boiler again.
Building a
shelter house at Kuennens Quarry was a big project for us (OK, I didn’t build
it, but I did watch the construction crew on occasion). One of the concerns at
the time was vandals breaking in. We discussed various scenarios. The results,
we seem to have had a few break-ins early by main force on the doors. But only
a couple times has a window been broken. With all that glass it would seem a
simple matter to break some, and it is surprising to me that it hasn’t happened
more than it does.
With not much to steal inside, there really isn’t much to
attract a big thief. We did have the small children's picnic table stolen
once, but it was found along side the road a day or two later. Apparently it
flew out the back of the escape vehicle and landed hard breaking the legs off.
We were actually able to replace a board or two and put it back out there in
good condition.
The big
loss early on was we had placed a handful of prints and some stuffed animals
inside the shelter. Those did attract a thief and they disappeared.
Playground equipment. Neither Kuennens Quarry
or
Kuennens
seems to be full of memories, some strange. We had a well drilled one winter.
Up until that time, it was common to see people drive their truck out onto the
ice to fish.
The well
drilling seem to have disturbed the normal ice conditions, however, and one
person fell through and needed rescuing, and there was a vehicle or two that
came pretty close to dropping in. Drilling the well involved pumping water into
and out of the hole and it seems like there must have been some sort of ground
water circulation that affected the quarry that year. After that, it seems like
nobody ever drives out on the ice anymore even though the thick ice conditions
returned to normal after that year.
Kids. Some of those early students that I remember well have
their own little kids in my classes now. Kind of fun to see
the family resemblances when you look at the next generation down the road.
(I’m not of course getting old yet).
1992
appears to be the last time I gained a lifesaving (swimming) certification, at
least a record of the payment to the pool appears in the books to jog my
memory. I remember that taking scouts on an outing with canoes required that at
least one person be certified as a lifeguard. We took the Manly scout troop to
boundary waters canoeing that year. Having been an occasional lifeguard during
my high school years and shortly after in college, it was a snap to do a
challenge (I think that’s what they called it) and pass through the class at
the time. The only part I ever had trouble with was swimming with the brick held
above your head. I’m not at all buoyant and even though I’m a very strong
swimmer, when denied the use of both arms, I would sink pretty fast under the
weight of the brick. Perhaps if I could have balanced it on
my head….
This brings
up another memory (not at all work related) of seeing my uncle doing a dive off
the diving board at age 80. He quit after that, said “that’s enough” and lived
another 9 years in relative good health. Perhaps he should have kept diving…
That’s
about as far forward as I got so far. Be interesting to see what else if jogged
in my memory as the review continues.