Hi, I'm Leon Baldwin
Age: 60 something
Residence: Central Florida
Motto: It's the second mouse that gets the cheese!
E-mail:
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I was born barefoot in the mountains near Cumberland Gap in Kentucky. |
Barely
surviving adolescence at Clarenceville High
School, I ventured on to
Michigan State University in 1961. Freshmen
had to live on campus. I was assigned to Butterfield Hall. There I met my
best buddy Nelson. He thought I was a bit weird but we got along anyway.
We were moved to Wilson Hall the next year. Butterfield Hall had been turned
in to a women's dorm. We heard the urinals were turned into planters.
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I took summer classes in '62. The dorms were closed but FarmHouse Fraternitywas renting rooms. I became acquainted with a member
who encouraged me to pledge the next year. I did, became a member, and moved in for my last two years. Dormitories were people warehouses. FarmHouse was a small family. It was great living among compatible fellows.
My real major was ROTC but degrees are not awarded for that. I was drifting around in various courses and ended up with enough credits to earn a B.S. in Psychology. What would I do with this degree? What the heck, my real diploma was the brand new set of 2nd Lieutenant bars on my shoulders.
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After four years in the US Army, I was wondering what to do with the rest of my life. Cleaning out rat cages in a psychology lab wouldn't cut it (and it stinks). While watching the Phil Donahue show in 1972, a commercial caught my attention. "Do you like to work with your hands but don't like getting your fingernails dirty?" I signed up for Control Data Institute's Computer Hardware Technology course. On completion, a scout for Digital Equipment Corporation hired me to work in their Westminster, Massachusetts plant. Can you say "provincial", pilgrim?
For the first year I assembled and tested central processing units, memory, floating point processors, and small peripheral components for the PDP 11/45 16 bit mini-computer. That was the most fun I've had in my working life. The next two years were spent on Final Assembly and Test of complete PDP 11/45 and PDP 11/70 systems.
California was calling my soul... I moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Repairing computers all over town all hours of the day and night was my lot for 5 years. Then I say to myself, "Myself, I don't see software types getting called at 2 a.m., weekends, or holidays to face angry, frustrated and computer deprived customers. Are you crazy?". I concluded I was and promptly got a transfer to Digital Learning Services to do software training. Can you spell "Macro 11", "RSX-11M", "VAX Macro" or "VAX VMS"? Well I learned to. I could even teach a lot of it.
My 23 year career with Digital ended when company fortunes plunged into Stockholder's Purgatory. Digital Equipment Corporation was bought by Compaq which was in turn merged with Hewlett Packard.
As the pieces of Digital
spin off, my piece lands at Global Knowledge Network. This company is the
Authorized Digital training provider and the world's largest Microsoft Authorized
Technical Education Center (ATEC). My training career is advancing by being
a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Certified Product Specialist for Microsoft
Windows NT Workstation and Microsoft Windows NT Server. The future is yet
to be determined but looks good from here. Stay tuned...
In January 1999 the company said, "After 26 years we don't need you any
more... don't let the door hit you on the way out..." I am sure you have heard that story
many times.
I looked at the situation and decided that I could retire (or not go back to work is more
accurate) if I carefully stretched my dollars.
California was too expensive and I had been in the big city for 26 years... time to get out
and away. Since I had no attachments in California, I decided to move to be nearer my Dad
in 
Florida. I bought a double wide mobile home a few miles from him in the small town of Leesburg.
You can visit my community by clicking this link:
Hawthorne at Leesburg
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Dancing The
Night Away
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At Michigan State University I took a ballroom dance physical education class in my senior year. It was very enjoyable but I never had occasion to dance after that. Beginning in September we have ballroom dance classes at Hawthorne every Thursday night until April. I am told that I now dance very well. It's my main activity for fun and exercise.
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I had a whole mountain side for my play ground. My folks grew some of our
food, had a cow for milk, and chickens. There is nothing like fresh chicken
crap squirting up between your bare toes in the summertime. I began school
in a one room school house where my mother taught all eight grades. No, I
didn't walk 4 miles to school in the snow (but my Dad did). Click
