A trip down memory lane

We had planned for Wednesday to be a trip down memory lane for both of us (in different ways).

We drove to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, with a plan to see information about the past for computers... only to find that it is used for special events during the week and open to visitors only on the weekends! Bummer!!! Maybe we'll visit on the weekend, but it is a bit of a drive...

We looked around the area for other places that we might find interesting and nothing struck our fancy, so we headed back south, stopping at a couple of IBM places where I taught classes when I was in the IBM education group back in the 1980s and 90s...

There was an exhibit outside Lowe's and AutoZone stores - a gazebo with some displays about the IBM Cottle Road Campus, and specifically IBM Building 025. I neglected to get pictures of the area - you can see other pictures here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ibm-building-025 

I figure some of my former IBM colleagues might find some of the information interesting. The striping on the pictures is due to the trellis that was alternatively shading and providing sunshine on the information:

I couldn't figure out what building it might be referencing... from the article I linked above, I guess it might be the brick walls and steel trellises that made up the exhibit area.

Text: IBM got its start in San Jose in 1943 at this unassuming punch card manufacturing plant at 16th and St. John Streets.

Text: This aerial view shows the manufacturing facilities at the Cottle Road Campus in 1958. The company cafeteria is the low, cross-shaped building at the center of the photo. Building 025 would have been to the right of the photo.

The text says: The company cafeteria was centrally-located on the campus. It was an early innovation in employee amenities that is now commonly found on industrial campuses.

I don't recall the cafeteria at all, though I'm almost certain we would have eaten there during classes.

Text: An original sign from the entrance of Building 025, c. 1960s.

 

I doubt we ever taught in Building 025, as I suspect that was for the hardware division, and we would have either taught in software division areas, or, I more remember that we taught in the customer center, which was at one end of the campus.

I knew nothing about the tile mosaics...

The sun reflecting on the glass over the picture makes it hard to see... but... I guess that's the mosaic that was supposed to be reminiscent of computer punch cards...

So... the display is in the parking lot between Lowe's and AutoZone... and they have emulated the "computer punch card" mosaic at the roof line of their buildings...

The pattern is easier to see at AutoZone -- Carl and I can't see computer punch cards...

The entrance to the "Indoor Lumber Yard" at Lowe's has the mosaic pattern at the roof too...

It is hard to imagine that whole campus is gone, but... I guess the property became more valuable than the buildings, and the buildings were probably outdated for what was needed in the 90s.

From there, we drove to what I had known as the Santa Teresa Lab, but which later became known as the Silicon Valley Lab (SVL). I had thought that we might be able to go into the lobby, and maybe there would be some history about that location provided too, but, there was only a badge entry into the parking lot (no one in the guard shack), and I decided not to try to use the intercom to gain entrance. It appeared that very few people were there (the second entrance to the campus was totally closed off).

We headed back to the campground via a windy mountainous road. I was glad we traversed that route in the Jeep as that is the one that the Garmin, the one that knows how big our RV is, recommended we take to come to the campground last Monday and the route by which it is recommending we leave! Evidently the easier route has a commercial weight restriction on the roads, but.. as we did on our way in to the campground, we're going to ignore the weight restriction and take the more easier route to get back onto Hwy 101 when we leave on Monday.