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Out of the blue during the third quarter I was called to the high
school office. Had I done something wrong? Was there a family
emergency? No, it
was a note that I was to meet with Dr. Drysdale of Dartmouth
College who wanted to see me, including a phone number, an address,
and a date & time. Stunned, I had no idea what to make of it.
Having recently read a Larry Niven story called 'Dry Run', in part
about making a trip ahead of the time just to make sure a planned
route would work, I decided to make the long drive to Dartmouth the
preceding Sunday to make sure I could find the address and office.
I eventually found it and it turned out he was with the computer
science wing. Had he heard about me from my computer fair touring
days in my Sophomore and Junior years? Had my absent mentor Zack
Hatch bumped into him during his sabbatical and dropped my name? Or
had Dr. Drysdale recently bought a Trash-80 and heard I was the
one to talk to about setting it up? This little mystery gained
my attention at a time when very little caught my interest.
While my first quarter had respectable grades amongst the blank slots
from withdrawn classes, the second quarter I only had a couple of
'D's to break-up the string of 'F's. I hadn't even thought to use
the trick of withdrawing from a class before the grades were in to
avoid the 'F's. Having the first period of the day free had worked
out so well for me in the previous quarter that once my two quarter
last period of the day class ended, I kept that period free as well
for the third and fourth quarters allowing me to show up to school
late and leave early. Being able to leave early was going to be a
good thing as I'd need the extra hour to get to the Dartmouth
appointment from the school as it had been scheduled for a weekday.
Arriving at the College, I discovered finding a parking space during
regular hours much harder than during off hours, but I fortunately
found one and got to his office only a few minutes late. I
introduced myself and he introduced himself and told me who he was.
I wondered what the appointment was about and it turned out he wasn't
so sure either... So a third party had made the appointment and
hadn't thought to let either of us know why? He asked if I had
interest in computers, which I told him I did and so he warmed-up the
terminal in his office. He asked how my interest had started and I
mentioned how it began with typing in games from magazines and by the
next year I was writing my own. This prompted him to bring up the
College's local version of 'Colossal Cave', a text based adventure
game consisting of text descriptions with the player able to type in
simple directions such as 'go north' or 'take ax'. Having played
more advanced variations on my home computer, it was interesting, but
the College's version didn't catch my attention.
Dr. Drysdale asked me about some terminology, which I was unfamiliar
with and we seemed to have come to an impasse as what to talk about.
Then it occurred to me that maybe I should show him some of my code
and asked if I could make a follow-up appointment with him and bring
my computer with me so I could show him what I could write. He
agreed and I had little doubt that once he saw my magnum opus game,
'Star Quest', he would be duly impressed. While it still lacked a
climactic ending, all of the flashy graphics along the way should
make 'Colossal Cave' pale in comparison!
Appointment made, the following week I loaded up my computer
into my dad's car in the morning before going to school. I
whiled-away the school day with anticipation, a great
improvement for me versus staring at the floor. And I was
even able to get out of my second to last period class early just to
provide me that extra time to get to Dartmouth and set-up my
computer. The drive went by fast and I arrived; leaving my
twenty-five hundred dollar computer in the car hidden under a blanket
to be safe, I went to his office. A quick greeting and I asked where
I could set-up the computer and he took me down to the garden level
staff lounge and said I could set it up there. He'd be going to a
quick meeting but would be back within the hour. That sounded great
and I went out to the car.
I brought in the computer piece by piece and hooked it all together,
then attached the cassette player and began loading the game. Out of
paranoia, given that the cassette tape interface was known to be
flaky, I brought a second copy of the game on another tape just to be
safe. But I didn't need it. Having arrived just before four thirty,
I was all set-up with the program loaded into the computer's memory
and ready to show-off by four forty-five. I knew I was going
to impress Dr. Drysdale when he got back.
All original code, my program was replete with algorithms containing:
Inter-language calls, time slicing routines, real time graphics, data
compression logic, constrained data generation, line algorithms, and
a universal user input routine with program state dependent data
parsing. My only regret was I wouldn't be able to show the doctor
the Bubble Sorting technique I'd come up with to provide my school
its random number list in the previous year.
Some professionals in the computer field had made their
reputations, in part, on originating one of these logical techniques
apiece. The problem was I
didn't know that as I was unaware there were books on
computer programming beyond the Trash 80 Level I BASIC
manual. All other books I had come across had been little more than
programming language syntax references. The thing was, I was self
taught and thus hadn't realized there was a whole world of computer
programming jargon out there that I should know in order to
communicate with other people in the computer field.
While I waited for Dr. Drysdale to return, I got to show off my
program to a number of Teaching Assistants that came into the lounge,
but I think it only totaled around three. I assumed the doctor would
arrive by five thirty and when that came and passed, I assumed he was
running late and would definitely be there by six o'clock... By six
thirty I was starting to feel a little antsy and daringly left my
computer unattended in the lounge while I went up a few sets of
stairs to check his office. Locked and dark, I realized he
might be at the lounge right
then and wondering where I was. I flew back down the stairs and
reached the room. No one was there. Six thirty
spanned to seven fifteen and I asked the last T.A. I saw that evening
if they knew where Dr. Drysdale was, he assumed he'd gone home by
now. This startled me as I began to wonder if he had forgotten about
me after his meeting and simply went home. By seven forty I went up
the stairs to check his office again simply because it was the only
other place on campus I knew of to look for him.
Once eight o'clock came, I realized he probably wasn't going to show.
As the campus was obviously closed for the night and I hadn't a clue
where any centralized office might be where I could ask about Dr.
Drysdale's location or off campus contact number, I realized I
should probably go. Still, I waited until after eight just to be
safe and reluctantly disconnected the computer and took the parts to
the car. By eight thirty, just over four hours since I'd gotten
there, I started my long drive home.
In subsequent days I tried calling his office number but it just
rang. Before the days when answering machines were common place, I
couldn't just leave a message for him. At my High School I asked if
they had some alternative phone number or contact information for
him. They didn't have anything beyond the note they had originally
given me. Nor did they know who had originally set-up the first
meeting with him. I toyed with the idea of just driving back to his
office one day and linger by his door until he showed-up at some
point but, given the driving distance involved, that seemed like a
silly waste of gas.
Surely he would have called me if he had really wanted to see me
again, and I concluded that he didn't. Of course,
in the days before answer machines were common place, for all I know
he had been calling my home time and again to apologize and make an
alternative appointment...
But with no one there, there would be no one to answer the phone.
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