1968 was such a turbulent year that Don and I decided to move to a farm in Minnesota. That was the year Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and rioting broke out in major cities all across the country. Then Robert Kennedy was assassinated, followed by rioting in Chicago during the Democratic convention. We thought living on a farm, out in the country, would be safer than living in a city.
We had two little boys, and I was expecting our third child late in 1968. We wanted to raise our children in a safe environment, away from all the problems of big cities. We had a dream, that Don would get an engineering job with a big computer company, which would pay to move our family back to the Twin Cities area. We'd buy a family farm, and operate it so it would pay its own way and provide a living for us. Then, Don would quit his job working as an employee, and we'd open up a stoneware pottery studio, and live as artists.
I know this doesn't say much about computers, but it was the reason we decided to move to Minnesota. Don was raised in Sioux Falls, SD, and he wanted to move there, but I wasn't willing. Sioux Falls didn't seem like a big enough city to me. I was willing to live on a farm, but only if it were within easy driving distance of a major city, with venues for theatre and the arts. Also, the Twin Cities supported a thriving community of computer companies.
We subscribed to the Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and began reading the ads for computer engineers. We mailed numerous resumes. Finally, Don got a job that met our needs, so we sold our house, packed up our three little boys, and flew off to the Twin Cities, with a stop in Sioux Falls along the way, so we could visit with some of Don's family.
When we arrived, we were assigned to a motel near the factory where Don would work, because our furniture was being shipped across country. The first day Don went to work, leaving me and the three little ones in a motel room, not knowing anyone, and with no way to go anywhere without Don. When Don arrived back at the motel, he said the first thing his new boss told him was, "We're going to move this whole division to Sunnyvale. Do you want to move out there?"
Don told him no, we were still in the process of moving to the Twin Cities. As a result, the company was supposed to give him a comparable job of equal responsibility and opportunity. However, Don said, there was no comparable job on other computer systems, because this one was being designed to be the world's biggest and fastest.
Nevertheless, he took a job they offered him, designing a drum memory for a lesser computer. He quickly got bored with this job, because he quickly made designs that would only later be integrated with other parts of the system. He then had nothing to do for 18 months, while other parts of the system were being designed, and he would get feedback on what he had done months before.
We had two little boys, and I was expecting our third child late in 1968. We wanted to raise our children in a safe environment, away from all the problems of big cities. We had a dream, that Don would get an engineering job with a big computer company, which would pay to move our family back to the Twin Cities area. We'd buy a family farm, and operate it so it would pay its own way and provide a living for us. Then, Don would quit his job working as an employee, and we'd open up a stoneware pottery studio, and live as artists.
I know this doesn't say much about computers, but it was the reason we decided to move to Minnesota. Don was raised in Sioux Falls, SD, and he wanted to move there, but I wasn't willing. Sioux Falls didn't seem like a big enough city to me. I was willing to live on a farm, but only if it were within easy driving distance of a major city, with venues for theatre and the arts. Also, the Twin Cities supported a thriving community of computer companies.
We subscribed to the Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and began reading the ads for computer engineers. We mailed numerous resumes. Finally, Don got a job that met our needs, so we sold our house, packed up our three little boys, and flew off to the Twin Cities, with a stop in Sioux Falls along the way, so we could visit with some of Don's family.
When we arrived, we were assigned to a motel near the factory where Don would work, because our furniture was being shipped across country. The first day Don went to work, leaving me and the three little ones in a motel room, not knowing anyone, and with no way to go anywhere without Don. When Don arrived back at the motel, he said the first thing his new boss told him was, "We're going to move this whole division to Sunnyvale. Do you want to move out there?"
Don told him no, we were still in the process of moving to the Twin Cities. As a result, the company was supposed to give him a comparable job of equal responsibility and opportunity. However, Don said, there was no comparable job on other computer systems, because this one was being designed to be the world's biggest and fastest.
Nevertheless, he took a job they offered him, designing a drum memory for a lesser computer. He quickly got bored with this job, because he quickly made designs that would only later be integrated with other parts of the system. He then had nothing to do for 18 months, while other parts of the system were being designed, and he would get feedback on what he had done months before.
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