I went to Glendale College at first because I grew up there and it was handy to go to and I could easily drive there from home and studied computer Data processing and computer programming there. I learned COBOL and FORTRAN. Cobol is a business language and Fortran stands for Formula translation which is more of the Scientific based language that reminds me a lot of Algebraic formulas the way it is designed. My favorite language then was Fortran simply because I had always liked studying Algebra because the basic formulas made a lot of sense to me because I have a very logical mind. My father by teaching me to be an electrician from an early age (likely began by 5 or 10 working for my dentist and his wife) because he traded work for my dental work done starting at age 6 years old.
But, by ages 10 or 12 I began to work more earnestly during summers learning the electrical trade building houses and businesses and remodeling homes and businesses a lot with my father's Electrical contracting business. So, in order not to die being an electrician (especially if you are working hot) working hot just means the wires are live when you work with them so sparks might fly or you could get electric shocks. Often this happened simply because businesses especially could not have their power shut off so we had to work with everything hot so the business could run while we were there. Same for many homes too because people might be living there while we were working there too.
So, I was very methodical and logical by age 20 in College because you don't survive being an electrician if you are not very logical and methodical. You will just be in the hospital or dead if you aren't very very logical methodical and practical and pragmatic regarding working as an electrician.
I learned to make punch cards and program computers starting in 1966 at Glendale College. I wanted a job at IBM and even applied there but then you needed a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics then to even apply at IBM then in Los Angeles so I gave that Idea up pretty fast because I wasn't interested in a Mathematics degree from college then.
My first job was part time working for the Glendale Board of Education making punch cards for computing data through their IBM 1620 Computer that we used for processing IQ tests for children in schools then and other standardized testing using pencils to mark multiple choice tests.
I also learned to wire an IBM reproducer and Accounting Machine there which all ran punch cards in 1966 until whenever microchips and RAM came on the seen in the Business world in Los Angeles County.
In 1966 if there were microchips it was NASA and government agencies that had and used them in that era.
Later after a couple of years of college I decide to work full time with computers and did so for awhile. I made really good money and was able to buy myself a brand new 1968 Camaro at the time which was wonderful in many ways for me. However, the tedious nature of computers before RAM and Microchips got to me and I realized what I really wanted to do in the computer field would take 50 to 75 years to actually come to pass.
I had dreams of a Star Trek kind of outcome which wasn't going to happen for 50 to 100 years because of the slow changes to the computer industry which brought by 1980 Home microcomputers which was the biggest single change back then. In the 1960s NO ONE had a computer at home at all and they all cost thousands to millions of dollars back then. And very few of us knew anything really about them especially computer programming. So, there was a lot of status being able to program computers because most people knew nothing really at all about them then.
Most people saw them then as sort of magical devices and were mostly scared of them so being able to say I worked on computers and programmed them was a lot of status for a 20 year old then.
However, real life is never theoretical it is actual so I had to make many hard decisions in my life during my 20s.
Luckily, my father had trained me to make decisions as a young boy and man so I was good at this by my teens and 20s. He had been valedictorian of his High School Class and his knowledge and wisdom saved my life in many many different ways in my teens and twenties and after.
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