Chapter 7

September, 1949

Now that Mother could do everything I could do, I had no trouble convincing her to let me have the motor scooter that I wanted. The three of us went to see the dealer the week before school started and we ordered the one I wanted: bright RED. There was no choice in these simple machines, except for color. There were no gears; all you got were two wheels and a motor covered by a simple stamped metal shell. There was a headlight and a horn, but nothing else. It was about as basic as motorized transportation could get. I loved it! At least for a little while, no more TP for me! My new motor scooter would take me wherever I wanted to go! At last, I was the proud owner of every middle school boy's dream, and I don't mean girls, I mean a motor scooter!

I rode it all over town; I have no idea how much gas and oil I used (it had a 2-stroke engine). I gave rides to everybody who wanted one; I even gave a ride to my mother! This was two weeks of heaven and then I started back to school. What a bummer! Normally, I liked school, but it was cutting into my riding time. I was obsessed! If I couldn't get rid of my passion pretty soon, I was going to be in trouble.

Thank God, I found something else to obsess over! I discovered the stock market! Dad had pointed out that giving bookies a heart attack was fun, but betting was really not a very good way to make a lot of money. He pointed to the really big money people and stated that their money came through the stock market. Furthermore, he emphasized that, as a county employee, he could not be seen to have a lot of money that could not be accounted for. Therefore, betting was out for the long haul.

I agreed that the stock market was the way to go, but I wanted a sure thing. How could I make the stock marked a cash cow for the McLouds? I know-- I'll make use of the Wall Street Journal. One year, five years, and ten years from now, I'll buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal and leave it for me on the sofa in the garage.

I discussed my plan with Mother and Dad and they agreed to cooperate. Tomorrow, I would buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal and compare the stock prices and other information for a number of companies and decide which ones to invest in for the short term and the long term. Dad's job paid enough that we did not have to hit a big jackpot right away, but I did want to get started. Our family agreement was that I would do all the work, but Mother would be the front name on the investment account. We knew that she would have to convince a broker that she was a serious customer—who ever heard of a woman investing in the stock market? We thought that it would be fun when she started to make a lot of money.

She called our bank as asked for the names of some brokers whom she called. They were all polite, but most didn't take her seriously. However, she did find that rarity of the times-- a woman stock broker who would be glad to add Mother's name to her customer list. While Mother was working her way through the red tape, I had to pick some stocks for her to start with. We didn't want to scare the broker, so I had Mother buy some staid, reliable names: Standard Oil and AT&T. I also had her take a flyer on IBM. None of these were going to make us any money in the short run, but my 10 years in the future information showed these all to be good choices.

I now had to get my ass in gear and pick some stocks which would pay off in the short run. I found five which I thought looked good, so I asked Mother to buy 100 shares of each. These had to pay off pretty quick or Dad would have to cash in some of his Series E savings bonds he had bought while he was in the Army in WWII.

This whole stock market thing was getting out of hand. I was drowning in information that I just couldn't process. I had tried to keep the information organized on file cards, but I just couldn't keep all that straight. It was just too much to do by hand. Then, one Saturday morning, I went out to the garage and found a genie's lamp! Well, not literally, but almost. It was something called a "laptop computer!" There were a couple of books and a box of supplies along with it and an envelope marked "Open me first!" Inside the envelope was another $10,000 and a note.

The note said, "Hello, me. I know that you are having trouble, both with money and with data processing, so these should help.

"Be very careful how you show the money, have Dad and Mother do the actual handling. They can find ways of feeding it into the family coffers without making waves, something you are not yet old enough to do.

"The other present is a device which won't show up for nearly 35 years, so you must hide it from everybody except Mother and Dad. I have left two books with operating instructions and enough supplies to get you started. I'll get you the rest of what you need in a couple of days. READ THE BOOKS! They will tell you what you must know to use the computer. After a month of using it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it!

"Set up the extra bedroom as an office and put a TK lock on the door. That way, only the family can get in. Keep the door closed and locked at all times! You'll need a desk and a filing cabinet. Get a comfortable chair, too, you'll need it!

"I know you will have fun, because I have already been there!

"PS Take the computer course in touch typing!"

I took the money and the note into the house and showed them to Mother. She and I went into the spare bedroom and looked into rearranging the furniture right then. When Dad came home at noon, she gave him the note and the money. Dad read the note and said that we should go looking for office furniture that afternoon; to heck with the Auburn game on the radio.

We quickly found what we needed, including a chair which was comfortable for all three of us. Dad paid cash and, for an extra $10, got everything delivered that day.

When we got home, I went out to the garage and picked up the two books. The other stuff I put under a TK lock, so I knew that it was safe. I planned to TP it into the house after the furniture was delivered and set up in the "office."

When I got back in the house, I opened and skimmed through the books. My God! A computer could do all that? I immediately began to read the book as fast as I could. It took me a little over two hours to read both books and I was busting to try out the computer. The furniture was set up while I was reading the last book, so I would be ready to get started practicing on the machine right after supper.

I couldn't wait so I released the TK lock on the stuff in the garage and moved it into the office with TP. I opened the lid of the computer and just stared at it for a few minutes. It looked like something from science fiction; I thought, "Boy, it looks futuristic!" Then I realized how silly that sounded; of course, the computer was futuristic!

I opened the box and found on top a whole stack of things which I recognized as what the books called CDs. Each had a description on the front cover saying that it was a training disc for a piece of software. No wonder the me of the future said that I would need a month to assimilate all of this knowledge. The box also held a supply of blank discs, a couple of packages of white paper, and some cables with funny connectors on the ends. There was also a box containing an "optical mouse" and a box of rechargeable batteries and a recharger.

About this time, Mother called me for supper. I put a TK lock on everything and went into the dining room. "Mother, Dad, you won't believe what's in the present from future me! It's like a genie in a magic lamp! I can't wait for you to see it!"

"Calm down, son. Your mother and I will see it after supper, Now, let's eat."

After supper, we went into the office and I showed them what I had found. I was disappointed at their reaction—neither one was as excited as me. Oh, well... Youth had its advantages.

My parents left after a few minutes and I got down to serious work. I made sure the power supply was plugged in; I heeded the warning about not using the battery any more than I had to. I was fascinated by the changing display as the computer booted; it looked like a movie to me (I had not yet seen TV). When the desktop finally came up, I inserted the CD for learning about Windows XP and got down to serious work. Mother had called me several times about bed time, but I barely heard her, and I kept on working. Finally, Dad came in and ordered me to "shut that damned machine down and go to bed!"

The next day was Sunday and I begged off from going to church so that I could work on the computer. Mother was a bit annoyed, but gave in when she realized how I would have done nothing but fidget all through the service. By the time they got home, I was comfortable with Windows XP and ready to try out the word processor. Now, that beat a typewriter all to Hell and back!

I was still a hunt-and-peck typist, so I dug out the CD on typing and started practicing. In only a few minutes, I realized that I did not have to use my fingers to push the keys—I could use TK! With my eidetic memory, I was able to learn the key positions immediately and I was soon typing as fast as I could think. I actually had to slow down; I was typing faster than the computer could keep up!

I was tired of working, so I thought I would try some of the games on CD. The first one to catch my eye was "Diablo." It didn't take long for me to get immersed in the game and play until Mother called me to lunch. It was nearly supper time before I finished my first run through "Diablo" as the warrior; I could hardly wait to try the other characters. I wished for more computers so that we could set up a LAN and Dad and I could play Diablo, together; maybe Mother would even want to join us. Dad was interested when I showed him the game.

The next day was Monday, so I had to go to school. I could hardly wait to get home to try out the rest of the goodies my POV had shown me were in the garage. When school was out for the day, I dashed home, kissed Mother on the cheek, and rushed out to the garage.