I have been blessed a bit, in my lifetime, probably undeserved, but nevertheless, fortunate. I have lived during the 30's, a time of great progress. Much I took for granted and never gave much thought to. I lived not to far away from Orville Wright, our neighbor was the family physician of Charles Kettering. Not far from where we lived was Runnymede Playhouse on the Talbott estate in Oakwood where early work was done on the Atomic Bomb.
I often watched a company of Waves march from the "Sugar Camp" to their building at NCR, where they were working on breaking the Enigma Code. We did not know what they were doing at the time, it was kept a secret. The "hunt" for UFO's started at WPAFB in Dayton, the Blue Book.
After my tour in the Navy, I ended up in Reno, and worked with many "old timers," who had worked in some of the notorious spots around the world, they had seen the likes of all of the "notorious underworld" characters of the day. They had worked the "Wheel Houses" in Florida, and the boats anchored off of Southern California. I worked with Doc Ledford, Burt, Jack Bailey, Allen Roberts, Ernie Primm, Lincoln Fitzgerald, a "breed" that no longer exists. I was very fortunate to work with them during that time. That era has passed by the wayside.
In my younger days, I would "hide" under the covers and listen to the radio, WLW, from Cincinnati, Ohio, using my "Crystal Set" .... move the "cat whisker" around the crystal to find the station. It was gloriously "evil" to hear Peter Grant do the news, and then, "Moon River" the late night music program. Think what we have now for entertainment.
I went from Orville Wright to landing on the moon, in my lifetime. That is a great deal, when you think of it. I went from my crystal set to television and the Internet. I went from a 2-party telephone WAlnut 2229, to a cell phone. I had a portable radio that needed about 10 pounds of batteries, A's, B's, C's, to what we have today.
I am sitting here with my laptop, no wires at all, no connections, typing this, and having access to the world. I can search a "word" .... and a whole world of information appears. I have lived through great progress, unbelievable progress, if I was told "then" .... what would happen, I would have been laughing with disbelief. Don't be ridiculous, that will never happen ...... yet, it did!
