
The two items that catch my attention are items from
my past, each with its own story: a slide rule and an Abacus.
The slide rule belonged to my sister and was one of
the few items she left behind that I kept, along with a lamp, a table and
chairs. Most of her possessions were
sold, including her house in Marin, with assets going through me to her
nephews, who were her surrogate children.
It is an exceptionally nice slide rule, a present
from our parents when she was accepted as one of four women to the five-year
Architectural Engineering program at Iowa State University. Its leather case is
still supple after sixty-five years. And, while I have a problem reading the
small-print numbers, I think I could still remember how to multiply using it,
if not how to find square roots.
Those were the tasks she taught me, as I struggled
through algebra and more importantly Trigonometry in high school. I had my own slide rule, a much cheaper model
that was the iPad of its time. It too,
was initially banned from classrooms when tests were given and that mystery
increased its attraction. The immediate
successor of the slide rule was the pocket calculator, which became affordable
and in common usage in the 1970s. Of
course children of my grandchildren’s generation would hardly recognize a
pocket calculator from a paperweight.
My father was very proud of my sister and followed
her education as closely as he followed my career into his profession:
dentistry. I remember specifically one holiday meal when she was at the table
and he asked his prospective Engineering daughter whether she ever used that
transom thing to survey. When she
replied in the affirmative he asked, “What do you see?” She explained that unless another student was
in sight, holding a stick, you would see nothing of value.

The second item is an Abacus I picked up one time
when I was in Hong Kong, probably on liberty from a ship I was stationed
on. I was intrigued by the speed with
which a street vendor could total the cost of multiple items on the bargaining
process. While I understand the concept
and in fact have used it on occasion for addition or subtraction, its very
presence reminds me that I do not possess the skills of even an uneducated
Asian merchant.
There are other items on my desk that trigger
memories: various boxes from various countries, standard desk items holding
standard desk clutter, many of which trigger memories of where they came from
and what they have held, but those two items are constant reminders of my life,
when it was simpler and I was less jaded.
I’m sure I am not alone in treasuring that
perspective.
Next Post I’ll cover a topic I call The Science of
Lines. I think you’ll find it
interesting.
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