Look out below! A young techie is coming through

When I started in IT decades ago, it felt more like the Wild West. Rules and best practices either didn’t exist or were incredibly rudimentary, so we found ourselves in all sorts of sticky situations. We got our hands dirty, did the heavy lifting, and yes, made a mistake or three. But you did what you had to do, even if it meant kicking up a mess.

I started off by learning on the fly and through trial and error, working on IBM mainframes back in the days of the 370 and 3090, then moving over to VAX 760 units. When the opportunity arose, I applied for and landed a VAX job as a civilian contractor at a military base.

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For some reason, the VAX job wasn’t yet ready upon my arrival. To bide the time, they handed me a stack of manuals about a foot thick on these things called “personal computers,” of which I knew nothing. But neither did anyone else there, and they figured I was resourceful enough to make it work.

I was intrigued, so dove in and taught myself all about dual floppy disk drives, 10MB hard drives, 16KB of RAM, token ring, ARPANET, the whole nine yards. This was back when computers were transitioning from IT-AT units to the 386 models. These personal computers sucked me in — I never saw a VAX ever again.

Cabling, cabling everywhere

Along with the job came the need to lay a lot of computer cabling — enough for a huge building using 10Base-T and 10Base-2. The building was reportedly built back in the 1940s and full of asbestos. Rumors abounded that certain areas had been used for radioactive experiments.

At the time, there was little to no concern about rules and best practices. As young civilian tech contractors, we did what was required, and nobody looked over our shoulders to make sure safety requirements were met. Fortunately, we picked up fast. For instance, I now know that you should never lay cables on the false ceilings over fluorescent lights, which I discovered the hard way. Tip No. 2: Never drill holes through walls to put in cables unless you have permission from facilities. (I did that too.)

One day I headed up into the ceiling to lay more cabling, decked out in one of those white disposable plastic suits and a felt-type face mask. I didn’t bother telling anyone where I was — we hardly ever did. I then climbed up above the tiles and went way, way back into the farthest reaches of the massive building, laying wiring into the rooms I was connecting.

What’s that sound?

After about 30 minutes of work, I suddenly heard alarms going off. At first I couldn’t tell what was going on, but after a few minutes it became clear that those were fire alarms. Here I was, up in the far reaches of the building’s rafters, and no one knew. I figured if there was a real fire I was toast, but I didn’t smell smoke. I still needed to leave and at least attempt to save my skin if it was the real deal.

To escape, I had to go over and under air conditioning ducts and avoid stepping on beams so as to not fall through false ceiling tiles — and not kick up dust, which for all I knew was toxic. It took me a good 15 minutes to crawl out and climb down a ladder accessway.

As I was leaving the building, I met a fireman who looked at me in shock, demanding to know why I wasn’t outside with everyone else. I explained what happened, including where I was and why it took so long. He wasn’t happy, but what could you do?

I walked out of the building, where literally hundreds of people were waiting for the all-clear. I joked that everyone need not worry and I’d discovered it was safe to go back in. We got a good laugh, but I sure was glad it was only a drill and not the real thing.

After that incident, we made a point of telling someone when we were heading up into the rafters. You see, we can be taught.

Watch your step

The ceiling beckoned again. Another time when I was laying yet more cable, I stepped on what I thought was a solid plank. It turned out to be a false ceiling. Adrenalin surged through me as my foot went through the tile, dumping a pile of dust into the room below.

I caught myself before I fell further. As I pulled my foot out, I looked down and saw a person sitting at his desk, looking up at me in shock — he hadn’t had quite enough time to reach the anger stage. Luckily, he was unhurt, but there was dust all over his computer and desk. He asked a lot of questions and went through plenty of different emotions as we cleaned up the mess, but in the end we both laughed at the situation.

When I took a closer look, I cringed at what might have been. Nearby wood boards and pipes could have crashed down. The cable I’d been dragging could have come through the hole. The dust and debris could have injured him or ruined his computer — or both. Sometimes the scene flashed in my mind on my repeat trips to the ceiling, and I’d watch my step even more closely, not wanting a repeat performance.

Over time and as the IT profession grew and changed, I picked up a few lessons: involve facilities, hire a contractor who does wiring for a living, use the right tools to get from point A to point B instead of creating my own — such as using broomsticks and weights tied to ropes. It also helps to just learn more about IT and be more mature.

I grew into the job and eventually picked up A+ certifications over the course of my career, but the good old days were a lot of fun in their own way.

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