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I have two anniversaries to celebrate this month. First, it is my sixtieth birthday and second this is my one hundredth newsletter. I was born on October 1948 and my knowledge letter started in May 2000. I can't believe either myself or my newsletter have survived so long!
I can look back over more than 50 years of my life. As a child, growing up in the fifties, it was a very different world. A few key memories from my first 20 years:
- My father was one of the first to have a car in our street, about 1955.
- As a child, holidays were caravan holidays in South Wales.
- We had our first TV for the launch of ITV in the Midlands in 1956. So I was 7 years old at the time. I remember it well. Those of you my age, living in England, may well recall Andy Pandy, Rag Tag and Bob Tail and more!
- The first satellite, Sputnik was launched in October 1957 when I was almost 9 years old and stimulated a life long interest in science and technology.
- I had one of the early consumer reel to reel tape recorders (Phillips Stella) in about 1962. And back then there were no electronic calculators: slide rules and log tables were the norm - a mechanical calculator if you were lucky.
- The first computer, I ever saw was at Rutherford Labs circa 1965. It was valve driven and water cooled!
- As a teenager: no phone, no internet. I walked half a mile in all weathers to the nearest red public phone box to phone my girlfriend.
- Books: you borrowed them from the library. You did not buy them and of course no Amazon.
- First manned Moon landing in 1969!
I am amazed how much has changed. What changes will I see in the remainder of my life time?
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