Photo of the day:
Yep, I worked on MARS once!
My typing is terrible. I taught
myself to type when I was in the USAF, and I was assigned to the MARS (Military
Auxiliary Radio System) network. THAT was long before cell phones. Back when an
international phone call of 10 minutes could take a month’s pay. We relayed
phone ‘patches’ from overseas via radio to local phone numbers.
The only problem was people receiving the calls
SELDOM knew of radio communications (long before Ham Radio became common
knowledge) where, when you get your sentence finished you must say ‘over’ and
we radio operators would automatically manually switch from transmit to receive
for the caller. It was fun teaching family members to talk with loved ones using
‘over and out.’ Did you ever receive such
a call?
We also took verbal messages where we had to type on to a teletypewriter.
You can see where this would be tough with the two-finger method I used. LOL
MARS operator from the net
This come up because I finally got used to typing on my PC keyboard, now
with this small laptop I add letters constantly and must go back and FIX my
errors. I have done that twice in the
last two lines, LOL
My
Sherry could type 80+ words a minute in school and used that in her work. I would guess that some of you reading used
typing in your occupations.
Funny that! Classmates, Sherry and
Evelyn, were talking at our camping site in Florida a few years back. Both were
in the same typing class in HS. Evelyn was
one of the fastest typists in the class but during final competitions was
beaten out by another girl in the class. Evelyn was telling Sherry that many
years after graduation the other girl admitted cheating to win.
Too bad one cannot go back and fix something like that, but the
confession at least helps. J
In
my youth a buddy and I stole some tires off a wrecked car in a junk yard. I went back later and paid for them. Crow is
tough to eat. LOL
Okay,
I just asked my girl what the ‘cheaters’ name was, “Doris Harvey! You know the same
girl that gave me a bloody nose in a fight, when we were kids!” WHAT? My sweet passive girl in a fight???? (Of
course, she has told me this before but I did forget), I just wanted you all to
know. LOL (Sorry Sherry! J)
PS:
God has allowed us to
meet some of the best folk on the planet; in person and here on the net. Thank you all for being here… and being YOU!
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8 comments:
I do enjoy your comments. They are certainly appreciated...
I never had or even knew about Mars phone calls. That is something i never heard about. It must have been an interesting job. We did have a ham radio. Many used it in trucking to converse with others. The whole family had fun with that. It was always fun to see where the people were at and how far away they were.
Gotta admit, I've never known anyone from MARS! (lol)
The closest I ever came to those early communications was the season in my life I spent with a (cruise ship) radio officer. Interesting what one had to do to communicate with friends/relatives back home!
I loved my typing classes, yet I'm scratching my head how anyone could cheat on such a test.
Thank you for another interesting post, my friend. One question: why is it that today, when I tell my mother-in-law "over and out" she does not stop talking? She talks so much I cannot interrupt.
God bless.
Never had a MARS call.
I did work on a teletype machine though many years ago.
Ken also did when he was in the Navy. I thought it pretty cool that he could read the yellow tape.
Wow 80 words a minute is very fast!!!
I never had or even knew about Mars phone calls. That is so interesting.
I made both my kids take a year of typing as an elective in high school - they are very grateful - now.
My FIL was a serious Ham operator - so I have heard him on it.
And boy do I remember the cost of long distance calls - YIKES!
The saying goes, “”Men are from Mars”. I beginning to believe it now. Haha
Lisa
I barely passed typing...
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