Chaos in the Computer Room

P.A. Fenning

Description

Portraying the events in Amy Brown's life from 1973 - 1977 when she becomes embroiled with a new computer system.
It's 1973 and Amy's marriage is disintegrating so she returns to work getting a part-time typing job at a local firm. Rumours circulate that the company is to become computerised. Amy is trained up for the position of computer operator and is involved with setting up the new system with the inevitable teething problems causing chaos. She's eventually promoted to computer supervisor with an assistant.
She joins her in-laws and friends including Dave and Penny, who have a baby, for a camping trip to Brighton. Dave doesn't realise he isn't the father. The identity of the true father is discovered at Brighton.
After her divorce Amy meets Phil and falls in love. They get engaged but problems arise and she finishes with Phil. She then contacts her old boyfriend, Ralph which turns out to be a mistake.
Her young son and his little friend have a near disaster when they become adrift far out at sea in a small inflatable boat. Tragedy is averted when they are rescued.
Amy adopts several animals including a collie dog who sadly gets killed.
It is now 1977 and wanting a fresh start she decides to move.

Sujets

• Computadora
• Computer
• Biography
• 1970s
• Ordinateur
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Trafford Publishing
• Date de parution: 18 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781698712642
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Continuing Life and Adventures of Amy Brown
 
 
Also Available:
 
Mayhem at the Manor
Sleepless in Soho
Bedlam in a Bedsit
Ralphy to the Rescue !
Baby on a Barge
Chaos in the Computer Room
P. A. FENNING

 
© Copyright 2022 P. A. Fenning. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
 
ISBN : 978-1-6987-1263-5 (sc) ISBN : 978-1-6987-1264-2 (e)
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Trafford rev. 08/18/2022
www.trafford.com North America & international toll-free: 844-688-6899 (USA & Canada) fax: [phone]
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1Confrontation
Chapter 2A Smashing Time
Chapter 3Out on The Town
Chapter 4Street Fighting
Chapter 5Romantic Repercussions
Chapter 6The Return of Ralph
Chapter 7Chaotic Times
Chapter 8Adrift at Sea
Chapter 9Pets Galore
Chapter 10On The Move

I would like to dedicate this book to
my late wonderful in-laws Joan and Cyril
who gave me so much help and support.
Introduction
Amy Brown’s adventures continue in this sixth book, portraying the highs and lows in her life. The story is based entirely on true facts and follows on from ‘Baby on a Barge’ covering the years 1973 to 1977.
Amy is now in her early twenties and married with a son. Finding herself stuck in an unstable marriage that is falling apart, she resolves to get a job. She is offered a position at a local company that supplies spare parts for trucks and is soon entrusted with growing responsibilities when the company decides to update its manual system for the burgeoning computer age. Amy becomes embroiled in the chaotic changeover during these dramatic times.
With many new and old friends willing to help her adjust to her newly acquired freedom, her life takes on a whole different perspective with many challenges to overcome.
ONE
Confrontation
Amy stood huddled together with her sister-in-law, Stella and her mother-in-law, Joan in the small inflatable paddling pool trying to keep cool while Cyril, her father-in-law, sat on the garden swing in the shade of the elderberry tree. They watched an excited Byron as he peddled his new Chippy bike up and down the garden path. With his blonde hair and dark eyes, Amy thought he was the most beautiful little boy in the whole world, but then she was rather prejudiced. The date was Sunday 17 th June 1973 and he was celebrating his second birthday, blissfully unaware of the unfolding traumas currently disrupting his mum’s life.
Amy’s marriage to Stuart had been going from bad to worse since she made the shocking discovery of his girlfriend’s washing in her machine. He was on a three-year training course as a psychiatric nurse at a local hospital where he met his Malaysian girlfriend but he showed no inclination of wanting to give her up and save his marriage. Amy, reaching the end of her tether, decided she must get a job ready for the inevitable day when he would walk out, leaving her to cope on her own with their son.
A few days earlier she had gone for an interview at a small firm conveniently located at the end of her road. The personnel manager was Mike Cole, a pleasant middle-aged man, who had explained that the work mainly involved typing invoices, something Amy had plenty of experience doing, so he had offered her the job there and then. She was due to start the following Monday – the day after Byron’s second birthday. The work was only part-time from 2 pm to 5 pm each afternoon, but at least it was a start after over two years out of the workplace being a full-time mum.
Early Monday afternoon Amy put Byron in his buggy and made the half-hour trek over to her parents’ house as her mother had agreed to take care of Byron while she was at work. She then had to make the return trek back to the offices and warehouse of Intertruck where truck parts were bought and sold.
Amy was met in reception by Mike Cole and shown into the adjoining room to his office which had a shared glazed door. There were two specially adapted typewriters on separate desks where the invoices were produced. Mike introduced her to a rather fat but pretty girl with the unfortunate name of Janet Twatt who would be showing Amy what to do. Janet had been dividing her time between taking orders out on the sales desk and typing the invoices. Amy had never used one of these machines before, but once she was shown how they operated, automatically calculating the extensions, she found them fairly straightforward.
She gradually got to know the various people working outside her room in the main office. Immediately outside her door was the export department which appeared to be run solely by the chairman, Graham, a handsome charismatic Scotsman with blonde wavy hair. He had brought the company down from Scotland ten years earlier in 1963. Graham had a personal secretary, Chris, who did all his typing. She sat at one of a pair of desks nearby where the general typing was also done. Graham’s desk butted up to Keith’s desk. He was a bespectacled, brash, go-getting enthusiastic young man with a charming personality and welcoming smile. As sales director, he oversaw the running of the sales department.
Billy Roberts was in charge of sales. A young man with a small, slim stature who wore Cuban-heeled boots in a vain attempt to make himself appear taller. The three sales girls were kept busy taking telephone orders. Janet was one of the girls and another was introduced to Amy as Milly. She was a pleasant, chatty, dark-haired young woman. “I’m known as Milly the Mouth,” she said with a grin, “because I tend to talk too much. My hubby works in the factory across the road.” She, like Janet, had also been helping out with the invoicing when necessary.
The fourth member of the sales team was a middle-aged woman with tightly permed hair who wore frumpy clothes and didn’t quite fit in with the lively chatter that went on between Janet, Billy and Milly. Her name was Maureen, a quiet but pleasant lady who just got on with her work.
Janet, eager to tell Amy all the office gossip she knew about the other members of staff, came into Amy’s room at tea break for a chat. She confided to Amy that Maureen was now divorced and dating her butcher. “I’m sure she only sees him for the free meat she gets from him. I think she’s been struggling a bit since her divorce trying to cope with bringing up her two kids.”
She also told Amy about Billy’s many attempts to chat up girls who were usually bigger than him. His efforts always resulted in abject failure. “Billy often confided in me about his problem with dating girls. He eventually did meet and date a petite girl who was actually shorter than him. He became totally smitten with her but unfortunately, it didn’t last. She gave him the elbow and sent him spiralling down into a state of depression. He blames his small stature for his inability to get or keep a girlfriend.”
“Poor bloke - that sounds like such a sad situation,” Amy remarked.
Janet laughed. “You’re not going to believe this,” she said, changing the subject, “but Mike only went and hired a deaf telephonist!”
“No! Really?” Amy was gobsmacked.
“Well, she’s not exactly deaf, just a bit hard of hearing so you have to speak quite loudly to her. She miss-hears names but you get used to working out what she means. The other day she came into the office looking for Graham but couldn’t find him. ‘I’ve got crackers on the phone,’ she yelled out. Keith took the call and it turned out to be a firm based in Caracas in Venezuela!”
Amy burst out laughing and Janet giggled. “Keith also found it amusing.”
Amy soon got to know the layout of the various offices. Upstairs two large rooms housed the accounts and buying departments. Bob Wills was the buying director with his own office within the buying department. He was prematurely bald, a rather shy, pedantic bachelor married to his work and a difficult man to please. In accounts, Mark was the chief accountant, a married, middle-aged, oily man, bespectacled and balding who Amy took an instant dislike to because of the way he closed in whenever he spoke to her. She would edge away from him but he didn’t take the hint.
Also on this floor was the kitchen which was Bessie’s domain. She came in to make coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. The kitchen was sparsely furnished with just a small fridge and a microwave for heating the odd pie or sausage roll.
From the main office, a door led out to the warehouse where the stock was stored, picked and packed onto lorries for deliveries all over the country to various automotive firms and also exported abroad. The remaining members of staff who Amy rarely set eyes on were the five reps who each covered a different region of the country touting for business.
Amy quickly adjusted to her work with occasional dictaphone typing out at one of the normal typewriters in the main office to give a bit of variety to her work when there were letters that needed typing and Chris was too busy with Graham’s work to do them.
At home, Amy had taken her in-laws’ advice to tough it out. Initially, whe