Shakey’s Pizza – NASA

The Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) was the original name for the Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA’s center for human spaceflight. The Gemini Program was the first spacecraft missions that were controlled by MSC. There were twelve Gemini missions between April 1964 and November 1966.

I started working at NASA on June 2, 1964; however, I initially worked in Building 12 operating the IBM Direct-Coupled System. At that time, it was the most powerful computer in the world. That was where and when the most powerful computer operating system was under development. Every day was a day of success and/or failure, but it was always changing to make it work better. I learned that I could learn and capture how things worked and what did not work as expected. That was my first experience of documenting processes and procedures that others could understand. The initial documentation of the IBM HASP System continues to be the operating system for large mainframe computers today.

In November 1964, I was asked to move to another computer center that was located in Building 30. There I would be working with an older IBM 7094 computer that was not leading-edge like what I had been working with. I took that as a disappointment, and I was hesitant to accept. They explained to me that the group was involved with the space missions and that multiple computers and operating systems were involved. They needed someone with abilities to learn and develop operations documentation. I learned I would become an Operations Shift Manager and would train and supervise other computer operators. The move would be a promotion with more money and opportunities. Three months later I became the Data Center Manager for that computer center that operated 24 hours 7 days a week.

That is when I learned what real overtime was like. I was involved with support of Gemini missions 2 in January 1965 through 9A in June 1966. Back then, not many of the population had any knowledge of computers because only the largest companies had computers. As more companies were adding computers, there was no reliable source of trained computer operators. For eighteen months, I was training new computer operators who would end up getting hired by some company in Houston when they had as little as three months of experience.

From May 17, 1965, to September 3, 1965, I had only two days off while working seven days a week. One of the computer operators that had worked in my group the longest had a birthday in August and he invited me and Eva to have dinner with him and his wife on Saturday night, our first weekend off. He wanted me to meet his wife and to meet my wife. We had spent hundreds of hours together, but always at work. He told me about a new pizza place called Shakey’s Pizza that had just opened in Bellaire. We made plans to meet there even though I did not eat pizza. I thought it would be good for Eva to meet someone I worked with like we had done when I worked at Gulf.

That morning, Eva and I were busy shopping for groceries and other items for our apartment and did not take time to eat lunch. When we got to Shakey’s we noticed there was not one thing on the menu that I could eat. Eva got pizza and she did not eat much anyway. Shakey’s sold beer by the picture and sodas. Eva did not drink alcohol, so she had a Coke with her pizza. I drank beer with my friend while he ate his pizza. He did not live far from Shakey’s, but we lived in the Oak Forrest area. I do not remember how many pictures of beer were brought to the table, but even one may have been too many on an empty stomach.

There we were in Bellaire, and I knew Eva would need to drive us home. She had no idea of which way to go even when pulling out of the parking lot. She was in full control except she did not know that part of town or a sense of direction. She always rode the bus to get to work downtown. We had not gone two blocks when I got sick, and Eva was asking me where to turn next. I think she would have left me on the side of the road if she thought she could find her way home. Somehow we made it back home and then it was the challenge of the stairs to the second-floor apartment.

It was a few years later before Eva told me much about her dad and her relationship with him. I knew he did not attend our wedding, but I did not know he had not been invited. I had never been a heavy drinker and did not keep alcohol at the house regularly; however, I would have a beer or other drink in settings where others were drinking. That was normal during the 1970s at some business functions. The more I got involved in church, the more time I spent with people from church. With those changes, Eva would share more of her feelings about more things including about her life growing up.

God opened my eyes and heart so that I could see things from a different perspective. Eva had never screamed at me or threatened to leave me if I did do something or did not stop doing something. I do not know why, but it was her unconditional love. With that new understanding, promises were not an answer, only my changes would make a difference. I gave up nothing when I decided that alcohol would not be a part of my life. I had realized that nothing good had come from alcohol in my life and nothing would be lost without it.

Eva and I never talked about it, and she never told me that it made her feel any different, but our relationship grew stronger. Eva did not get out of this life without making mistakes too, and we all need to learn how to forgive. We all will make mistakes or use poor judgment from time to time, but what is important is how we respond afterward. Do we insert a pause in our actions to ask who will be affected by what I am going to do?