My daughter Cara got picked for Jury Duty. That means travelling to the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick, NJ. The other evening, I drove her there to show her where the Courthouse was, where to park and all that. She's somewhat familiar with New Brunswick as she's a graduate of Rutgers University, but the College Avenue campus is on the other side of town closer to the township of Somerset. Unless she's been downtown via Rutgers Campus Bus, I doubt she's ever been downtown on her own before.
I don't get into New Brunswick all that often myself, anymore. But for about 5 years, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was in the "Hub City" every day. I worked at and eventually became the manager of "The North Brunswick Camera Center Annex". Our main store was on Livingston Avenue in North Brunswick and we had this satellite store in New Brunswick on the corner of George Street and Bayard Street. Our biggest customers were Rutgers students (photography courses), Rutgers employees and the University itself had an account with us. Another big customer was Johnson & Johnson (the company) and some of their employees.
I've told this story before. My apologies for repeating it, but the memories came flooding back so strongly while I was driving around the city. It was while I was working at the Camera Center that I studied for my Novice license. The New Brunswick newspaper, "The Daily Home News" had a weekly column, "Calling CQ", on Sundays. about Amateur Radio and local Amateur Radio events which was written by Bob McGarvey. Bob is now an SK, and for the life of me I can't remember his call sign. Anyway, I never missed his column and one Sunday in late August he wrote about a Novice licensing course that was going to be given at North Brunswick High School as part of their Adult Continuing Education program. I think it was Tuesday nights, if memory serves me correctly.
It was to start in early September and run for eight weeks, and non-residents were welcome (for a slightly higher fee). The final week would be a review and the exam, which was given by a General Class op or higher. Our instructor was Ed O Donnell K2YJE (SK) and our text was the ARRL's "Tune In The World With Ham Radio" - I still have my copy!. Does that phrase ring a bell? It should - I believe that "Tune in the World" was the theme of this past Field Day. Our material for learning Morse Code was the ARRL cassette tapes. There were probably a dozen or a few more of us in the class.
Those eight weeks went by fast and they were fun! We had a good time and come November I'll never forget how anxious we all were about the code test. You had to solid copy one minute's worth of code (5 WPM) back then - there were no multiple choice tests like there were to be later on. Our instructor told us we'd get a few minutes of practice to "warm us up" for the actual exam, for which we were grateful. After the five minutes of code were sent, he looked at our papers and we all passed!
Unfortunately, back in those days, the exams were sent to the FCC to be graded. We had to wait 4 - 6 weeks before we got our results and our call signs. Mine came rather quickly, in Mid-December. I was at the camera store and it was near the end of the business day. About 4:00 PM or maybe 4:30 PM the phone rang and I was told it was for me. I picked up the receiver and it was my Mom on the phone. I thought maybe something bad had happened at home, but no ...... she informed me that an envelope had arrived from the FCC - did I want her to open it? Are you kidding me? Please! Yes! Of course!
Not only had I passed the exam, but my callsign was KA2DOH. I was probably walking about 10 feet off the ground! After trying to get my license in High School and becoming totally disgusted with Morse Code, I had actually done it! I was a Ham. Little did I know that I was to embark on a life long love affair with that very same Morse Code that I had so thoroughly despised in High School.
That camera store is still there some 45 years later. North Brunswick Camera Center has long since gone out of business. It's now called George Street Camera. I actually went in there a few years ago when I had jury duty myself. It was achingly familiar, but not quite the same. I guess Thomas Wolfe was right - "You can't go home again.". But I'll always have fond memories of those days in New Brunswick and that one day in December 1978 in particular.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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