Fred's Story

December 31, 2000

I was writing the introduction to the idea for the Chomski Drive, when it occurred to me that it might be interesting to relate Fred's Story in a little more depth. I mean, after all, Fred started with nothing, or almost nothing, and died as the sixth richest person in the World. (It is the sixth richest. I looked it up, and, although he was rated at number four for a while, when the James made their fortune, they surpassed his.) There should be something of interest here.

The Early Years

Fred was born the son of Jim and Marilyn Chomski. His father was a "garbage collector" which is what they called the people that work on fixing the computer memory problems at that time. His mother, actually, stayed home with Fred. She enjoyed being a housewife, and having all the neighborhood kids over. Most of the other parents were glad to pay her a few dollars every now and then to babysit. She really had a way with children.

As I mentioned in my previous work, Fred was born in 2037. I'm really not very good at looking things up, and it's not really that important, but I believe it was July 14. I do remember it was in the afternoon, though, because when Fred first hit the headlines (literally) in 2050, his mother was interviewed, and she mentioned that she had a promonition that something was up because of the way the sun came in through the western window the very moment he was born.

I suppose that some people will think this kind of odd. After all, most people can't see the sun when the son is born (a pun). Well, Fred's parents were very poor, as you might have guessed, and they could not afford to rent a birthing room at the local hotel, so Fred was born in a more primitive environment. His father did go all out, however, and hired a midwife, so there was someone who knew what they were doing. (But then, giving birth is a natural process, and in reality. I mean, people have been giving birth for tens of thousands of years with no training at all.)

I suspect that from his father Fred got an interest in computers, and from his mother he got an interest in people, and, ultimately, writing. Some people have thought it unfortunate that Fred never learned to integrate the two. But of course, Fred himself was happy the way things were. Some people have seen Fred as a failure, but I think they are really pushing the envelop.