In 1957 the "Asian Flu" ravaged this country.The virus came to the United States quietly, with a series of small outbreaks over the summer of 1957. When children went back to school in the fall, they spread the disease in classrooms and brought it home to their families. Infection rates were highest among school children, young adults, and pregnant women in October 1957. Most influenza-and pneumonia-related deaths occurred between September 1957 and March 1958. The elderly had the highest rates of death.

I was one of the afflicted. I was 12 years old and I was alone. Literally nothing to do . Even TV had  only two channels. All you could do was lay there.

Rarely do life changing events occur in such conditions. In my life they did. After at least 5 days on my back I heard the door bell ring . I heard Dad and Mother coversing with someone. I hoped it was not the Doctor again.

Mother walked into my bedroom  with Weldon Butler -- "Joe "Weldon Butler.

He was the preacher in our new churh --St Paul Methodist in Amarillo Texas. I thought he was going to give Last rights.

He pulled up a chair and handed me a box. In the box was a code oscillator and a key ( you wouldn't know by me) . He hooked up the batteries and as he talked to me he started making these funny sounds.

 He told me if I would learn the Morse code, he had more he wanted me to see. I devowered the code and recovered from the Asian Flu. Several Sundays later we were leaving Church and in the reception line and he stopped and looked down. He said "Michael what is "Y" in morse code.?" I immediately responded "dah dit dah dah"  He laughed so loud the line behing us cringed. He turned to Dad and said " Creighton, please bring the boy to my house on Wednesday night" .

I forgot but Dad reminded me after dinner and off we went. As I got out of the car there was something in my vision I had never seen. It was a 70 foot telephone pole with a two element ZL special for 20 meters. God what a montser.

Dad rang the door bell and the door opened . There he stood-- "JOE" W5ILJ.

"Come on in Boys". We walked to a small room down the hall where my life literaly changed. BC610, Super Pro, Prop Pitch rotor indicator and the lights in the house dimmed as he handed me the mic in qso with the "mojave desert" in California.

A ham was born.

W5ILJ passed away in 2004 with out my thanks. I think he knew though. ( he gave me the Novice exam).

Our beloved hobby is dieing slowly. We are all old now. If you have a chance to introduce this greatest hobby on earth to a young person, do not miss that chance.

Genesis 11:1

 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

Mike W5ZO