Wait, What

[afuna]

Spent the afternoon in the car with my mom running various errands and we got to talking. It turns out that mom was a systems programmer way back in the day of mainframes, and knows COBOL and assembly. And dad taught himself C in order to build a rudimentary inventory system (on a microcomputer? is that the thing?) -- this was for their first company, so late 80s/very early 90s.

I am floored. I was vaguely aware that she'd had a job involving computers and banks, but I did not realize the extent. Why did they not tell me this earlier? D:

(Note: Dad never taught me C; mom never taught me assembly. I wonder what would have happened if they had, though? I suspect murder and mayhem!)

Anyway, I found myself promising to teach her how to master excel -- or at least work it enough to run totals for her job. I suspect murder and mayhem! Whoo!

Comments

[cesy]

I had a similar reaction when I discovered my mum knew COBOL and my dad did Fortran and assembly. It's so cool! Why did they never tell me before now?

[afuna]

I knooooow. And now I kind of want to pick their brain, and I'm teasing my mom whenever I see a job opportunity for COBOL!

(But she says she likes assembly better XP)