As far back into my youth as I can remember, I was a Science nerd. Capital “S” Science, capital “N” Nerd. My Christmas catalog was Edmund Scientific. I didn’t check the drugstore rack for the latest Mad Magazine; I was waiting for Popular Science. My favorite literature was science fiction. (Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint/Homework Machine/Weather Machine/Heat ray…, Asimov, Heinlein, Pohl, Van Vogt…, movies like Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still).
Many birthday and Christmas presents were in various sciences: telescopes, microscopes, computer, chemistry set, gyroscopes and hover cars. I didn’t hang out at the local gas station, I hung out at the local TV repair shop. I built a transistor powered megaphone for my 4th grade Science Fair. I had to disassemble a telephone handpiece to get a carbon based microphone.
I was often out on trash day searching through people’s trash bins for cool stuff to disassemble, or rebuild. I brought home so many radios, toasters, even a couple TV’s (CRT’s in those days). TV tubes galore. I was always “building” devices that looked great, but would never work. I was 7-10 years old at the time. With “reclaimed” treasure, I built Van de Graaff generators, tesla coils and shock-coils.
When asked what I wanted to be when I grow up, it wasn’t a race car driver, or a football star – it was a “mathematician” or “scientist”, without fully knowing what those jobs would really be.
So, it was never a surprise to family or friends that I aimed for computer science and/or electrical engineering when I headed for college.
My junior year in high school was at a newly consolidated school. Ten local catholic high schools combined into one. Guess where I hung out? The science and math lab offices. I made friends with the instructors, a couple I had known from my previous HS. They had in their offices an ASR 33 Teletype that tied into a time-sharing computer in the school district. But none of them had any idea of what to do with it.
They gave me access. Big mistake! It supported a variant of Dartmouth Basic. I learned. I built a number of apps for the physics dept. I build some computer-aided instruction tutorials for the math dept. I had a blast.
I was even invited to “teach” a class in my senior year. It was headed by one of the math instructors, but I prepared a week long class as a programming intro. There were five 1-hour long lectures with handouts and time on the terminal (yes, there was only one), if anybody wanted. I would tutor. It worked well enough as an intro.
To this day, 60+ years later, I am still a Science Nerd. I still follow astronomy, quantum physics, digital electronics, medicine, biology, etc. I subscribe to a stack of magazines (old school, I know) and web services. I read everyday. There is so much I don’t understand, but I’m still learning.