The only realistic way out of her predicament was for her to get a job which she could do, and give someone else the job of looking after Philip which she couldn’t do.
Ada lived down the street and had a grown-up son. She was more than willing to take on Philip. Judy answered an advertisement in the Manchester Evening News for a Mathematical Assistant on a research project at Manchester Business School.
She was interviewed by Dr Winifrid Hackett, a 60-year old Aeronautical Engineer. Winifred Hackett had won the Prize for Best Engineer in the University of Birmingham in1930 “beating all the men hands down“. She had been president of the Women’s Engineering Society in 1946. Her present research concerned the scheduling of the work flow in aeroplane production. The project entailed statistical analysis, which required some complex calculations.
At the interview Judy demonstrated her understanding of the requirement immediately. She could do this. She was offered a part-time post, and it was everything that she wanted. The department had bought a calculator with limited programming facilities. No-one knew how to use it. She was sent on a 3-day training course in London, came back, and wrote a manual on how to use it. Dr Hackett supervised the writing of the manual, and exercised strict editorial control. They got on well together. This was going to be no ordinary manual. Judy’s first publication was as carefully written and structured as all the later ones would be.
The entering and checking data for the analysis was time consuming and potentially subject to error. One day Dr Hackett said that it might be useful for Judy to see whether the University Computer would be useful in speeding up the work and improving quality control. Judy signed up on a course, attended the first lecture, and came home shining. Professor Rohl had done a good job. That evening with no notes she repeated the lecture to David from beginning to end. Omitting no detail, however slight. The next day she got her first program to work.
Judy had recently read an article in Scientific American about the statistical spread of prime numbers, and within a week produced a triangular chart on a line printer with one dot in the first row, 2 in the next, 3 in the next, and so on, with the prime numbers represented by asterisks. The next day she rotated the chart to display more prime numbers. No, this had nothing to do with her job, but the very idea of being able to formulate a procedure to solve mathematical problems was what she had been waiting for all her life. She and Dr Hackett loved each other and the research project raced ahead. Meanwhile Auntie Ada loved looking after Philip who responded to her affection.
The only snag in this arrangement was that it was costing more for Judy to have Philip cared for, and to get into Manchester each day than she was paid. It did not matter. You expect to pay money to enjoy yourself.
Judy started to become computing advisor to other groups in the Business School. She became involved in a project with the Librarian to automate the classification of publications. This was when her in-depth knowledge of the Dewey decimal system for classifying publications, acquired when she was an Abstractor, came into its own. Looking back, you realise that no-one knew where they were going, but oh, the journey was fun.
When Philip was 2 years old, Judy discovered there was a Council run nursery in Glossop, about 3 miles away. She was offered a full-time contract at the University, and she and David decided that they would move to a house near the nursery, and that she would work full-time, while David would work part-time and become a house husband. He was taken on by a large Computer firm in Manchester who allowed him to start work early each morning, and get back home early afternoon. This suited everyone. Judy travelled on the train each day into Manchester, and David discovered what a doddle bringing up a young child was. During the holidays it was all sheer delight … going down to the park each day, playing on the swings, going into the library to find and read children’s picture books, reading stories and singing. And you don’t need to spend more than 10 minutes each day doing the housework. The 2 children had a whale of a time. Perhaps it gets more complicated when you get more children. Or if the spiders trouble you over much. Or if you think that clothes need ironing.
The child increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and his mum. Soon he would be going to school which would complicate things.
Meanwhile, back in Leeds, (Philip’s) Grandma Whiteley was needing a model child to take to school. Well, she might not have been, but she was compliant. It must be time to move.
jbrip 