[dws]

My copy is dated 1969. The COMPUTER merit badge card I have framed is dated July 27, 1970. Guess I missed the 50 year anniversary.

An Assistant Scoutmaster worked with the computer at the local Bell Telephone office, and guided me through getting the badge, mostly by providing binders of training material for their GE-mark-something. Computers then were expensive and precious, so the Bell folk only let civilians look through a window into the room with the magic box. And computer time being costly, they only let me run one program--which printed HI MOM and added two numbers. I didn't even get to type it in. In those days, one filled out a coding form and handed it to the secretarial pool to get cards punched.

"c. Describe jobs in the computer field."

Well, we all fly our jet packs to the office...