Q ..
Now is that where the computers today would do a lot of your calculations?
A ..
The computers today make that very easy. The sad part about those old computations is
you didn't learn anything when you were doing them. You would sit there day after day
after day working on the same kind of a problem, doing the same numbers over--number
crunching over and over--and you weren't learning anything. It was not a very good
experience except that since there weren't a lot of jobs around there anyway, you couldn't
be too particular about where you worked.
Q ..
You had to put bread on the table.
A ..
Yes.
Q ..
What did you use to do your calculations? Did you just use a
1 and paper, a slide
rule, the basic calculators?
A ..
We had the electronic desk calculators.
was, I think, one of them. But, you
know, there is an interesting thing about that. I moved to Fort Peck after I worked for the
Bureau of Reclamation for a while. But there was one of the fellows there that used one
of these hand-cranked computers. He wouldn't use the electric operated computers. He
would punch in his numbers and turn the crank and get the answers and he just wouldn't
use anything else.
Q ..
He didn't trust the electronics?
A ..
I guess not. I don't know, I never could figure out why he wouldn't
the other
calculators.
Q ..
Were there any people at the
where you were working who particularly influenced
your focus in hydrology or for you to go into it. Or was it just the work, you liked the
work?
A
Well, I just liked the work and the people were very interesting, too. I had a good boss.
I worked in a district office in Billings, Montana, and they also had a regional office there
at the same time. The fellow in charge of the regional was named Phil Gibbs. He kept
me interested in the field, I'd say, for one thing.
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