Wisdom's Zen
Biography
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My 2000 Mercedes-Benz ML320
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Recipes I Recommend |
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In case you are still wondering, my name is Thom Armentrout.
My given name is "Thomas," but I tell everyone now that I have removed the "as(s)" from the end of my name. (That's a joke, by the way!) I live in the Historic District of Fredericksburg, Virginia, an ever-growing city about halfway between Washington, DC, to the north, and Richmond, VA, to the south.
My twin brother, Tim, and I were born in Baltimore, MD, about... (Well, let's just say that I know what an eight-track tape player is and that Clinton was the first Democrat to be elected to two terms as President in my lifetime. You do the math!) Any way, not long after that, my family and I moved to West Virginia. (Both Mom and Dad are from there.) Although Dad originally planned for us to stay in West Virginia, as he was expecting to find employment there, his job with General Motors in Baltimore seemed to be financial fate. He and Mom decided to move us back to Baltimore, and thus began my most vivid memories of my life as a child (I was less than two years old when we moved from West Virginia, so you must excuse the fact that I cannot remember much there!). My youngest brother, Bill, (yes, I am the oldest) was also born in Baltimore (he's about seven years younger than Tim and I).
We lived in an apartment, as most young families do, then moved into a home in the Baltimore suburbs, in an area called Middle River (that's sort of southeast of the city). I attended elementary school there at Victory Villa Elementary (so named because the community was built to house Martin Aerospace workers' families during WWII; Victory Villa is a subdivision of the community of Middle River) and spent about half a year in middle school at Middle River Middle School. During my seventh grade, Dad was informed that his request to be transferred to a new General Motors "base of operation" in Virginia had been approved. The new "plant," originally named "Delco Moraine," became Dad's new employment site and was located in the then unfamiliar city of Fredericksburg, Virginia. So, we moved from Baltimore to a home in Spotsylvania County (yes, yes, I first thought Transylvania, too!), just south of Fredericksburg.
I completed seventh grade at John J. Wright Intermediate School (now John J. Wright Middle School, named for an influential black educator, with whose daughter, the late Mrs. Shamwell, I became friends) in Spotsylvania County. The transition was a bit interesting. Moving from a suburban school to one that I considered both rural and remote, and giving up friends that I had had for years was challenging at times. However, I soon began to enjoy the differences. In eighth grade (you are reading all of this, so I assume that you are still interested!) renovation began on the John J. Wright school, and classes moved to the Spotsylvania Middle School, across from what was then only one of two high schools in the county, Spotsylvania High School (my soon-to-be high school, now serving as Spotsylvania Middle School).
My years at high school were interesting too. Some of my most memorable teachers include Mrs. Zacchini (my tenth grade English teacher to whom I owe the expression "toe jam" as well as a "plethora" of vocabulary words and much of Antony's speech from Julius Caesar); Mrs. Fox (my ninth grade Earth Science and twelfth grade Physics teacher who always made each class topic more challenging and without whom I probably would not have had the confidence to undertake the major I did in college); and Miss Frye (the sweetest, most concerned twelfth grade Government teacher you could ever meet, who taught me more about being a good person than just knowing the voting precincts in Spotsylvania County). Of course, there were some stressful moments in high school, too, as is most always the case, but I did reach my goal. I graduated valedictorian, and Tim graduated salutatorian (thanks to my slightly better grade point average in eleventh grade English).
Besides Mom and Dad buying us our first car, one of the most memorable events in the summer after high school graduation for both Tim and me was acceptance into the SSEAP (Summer Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program). It's a program designed to locate and encourage future engineers and computer scientists to pursue related careers. Sponsored by the Department of Defense, Tim and I worked as "apprentices" to engineers at the Naval Surface Weapons Center (now the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, or NSWCDD, in government acronym speak) in Dahlgren, VA. The commute from our home in Spotsylvania to Dahlgren was not too great, so we thought that it was a great opportunity. We realized later just how useful this program would be.
My college years were interesting too (of course!). For the four years after high school, Tim and I attended The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Although I started as a major in civil engineering (I thought that I would like the design aspects), I eventually convinced myself, along with Tim's advice, to change my major to electrical engineering. Tim had been smart enough all along to choose that for himself. So, I followed his lead. We both then decided on a computer engineering option or "minor" of sorts, as it seemed more applicable to the work that we perceived ourselves as doing. Besides, with the insights we had gathered from the SEAP, we both thought that there might be jobs at NSWCDD. We were correct. Both of us enrolled in the Cooperative Education Program at GWU and chose NSWCDD as our employment site. Tim and I worked in different departments, but we still commuted together over the summers during our work schedules. Luckily, too, because we were on academic scholarships at GWU and did not need to accept the financial aid that is often a part of the Cooperative Education experience, we were able to graduate from college in four years. (Many "co-ops" take five years to complete their studies, as a full commitment requires that at least one "in school semester" not be during the summer. Am I boring you yet? Keep track of all of this, though, as there is a quiz that follows.)
Tim was the first to seek employment. I, however, was content to relax a bit more and catch up on the soap operas that I had missed during college. (Seriously! Watching Jill Foster Abbott (played by Jess Walton) and Mrs. Chancellor (played by Jean Cooper) scheme and fight on The Young and the Restless was very educational, you know.) He accepted a position at Computer Sciences Corporation or CSC first, then I followed suit. (CSC is one of the largest contractors in Dahlgren that performs work for NSWCDD.) I stayed at CSC for over seven years, then decided to pursue another position (similar programming and engineering work) at a smaller contractor, Ahntech. Working there enabled me to learn many new things and placed me in a position to be offered my current position at Solutions Development Corporation or SDC.
So, are you asleep yet?
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Bill's 1973 Porsche 911T
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Copyright © 2000 - 2008, Thom Armentrout. All rights reserved.
This page was most recently updated on January 13, 2008.