I Had My Cake and Ate It Too
Thanks to My Angels
by
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To supplement my income, I rebuilt transmissions on the side.
Chapter 7, 1968: My Next Angel, Patrick M. a CPA
It was during one of those times when I went to Steve's garage to borrow his transmission jack that I met Patrick M., a CPA, who was a customer of Steve's. He saw me working and said "You don't look like you belong here!" After some conversation, he offered to give me a "Letter of Recommendation" to a friend of his, who was the director of IBM's Service Bureau Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM and their Education Division. Patrick turned out to be my next Angel! I had no idea what lay ahead! Patrick did not tell me (maybe he just had a feeling about me). I went to SBC and took a Programming Aptitude Test, required to sign up for their IDP (Intro to Data Processing) course. I enrolled and was late for the first class, held by Joe B. He had binary numbers all over the blackboard. He commented to me, "You have a problem!", but fortunately, I did not have a problem. Not too long after I started working as a programmer, I was able to read and calculate in binary and hexadecimal as well as I could read English. I was one of four people out of twenty to pass. I had to take another test to go on to the next course. Again, I was one of five out of twenty to pass the test and go on. I signed up for Assembler Language Programming. I was in heaven! I found my niche in life! This stuff was better than any high I could ever get (I never touched drugs of any kind in my life). Assembler Language was for me. I took these classes in the fall of 1968 and finished in December. I paid over $800.00 for the courses.
This was the best investment I ever made in my life.
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About the Book
If you do what you love and love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.
It’s simple advice, but it proved to be a game changer for Terrence Boyle, who looks back at his unlikely life of going from a high school dropout to a successful IBM systems programmer in this memoir.
During his hardscrabble life growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey, he found there was never a shortage of things to do: From sledding, to climbing cliffs, to enjoying Tom Sawyer-like adventures with his friends, there was never a dull moment.
In looking back at his life, he pays tribute to all the angels in his life, including his mom, his wives, various friends and employers, and others.
He also looks back at a varied career, which included adventures in real estate, rebuilding houses, and working his dream job at IBM.
The author quit smoking cigarettes on April 7, 1985. One year later, almost to the day, he lost his son to AIDs. He thought if he could survive the death of his 23-year-old son without smoking again, which he did, he would have beat the habit for life,”
Join the author as he looks back at a wonderful life filled with angels who allowed him to have his cake and eat it too!
About the Author
Terrence Boyle was born to a large family in an inner
city. His father was a security guard for The Railway Express Agency and his mother was a housewife. While his family was poor, they were always happy. He left high school early to start life with his first love, and that is when he grew up.
After 9 years of rebuilding automatic transmissions, the last 4 of which he managed an AAMCO Transmission shop, he attended computer programming classes. That was his entrance into a position at IBM, eventually as a Systems Programmer, where he retired after 30 years, the most wonderful job he could imagine. He continued rebuilding automatic transmissions part time for 9 years, until his IBM salary supported his family.