After being downsized from IBM and Readers Digest, I listed homes for sale in upstate NY for over a decade. After a bad year in real estate and feeling like I had too much stuff, I realized that I was watching my life waste away. And for what. Just to have all my stuff. I sold most of my personal possessions, traded in my Subaru Outback on a Ram Promaster cargo van, which I converted into my new home. Now, I'll always have my home with me, wherever I go. I can boondock almost anywhere with my conversion van. I have been to places as far south as Key West, as far northeast as Nova Scotia, Canada, as far northwest as Seattle, Washington and as far southeast as San Diego. I've even been to Mexico. I will travel the continental 48 with a free spirit, playing my songs on my guitar for whoever will listen. I don't know how long I will do this, but I hope to do it for a long time. I met many people so far and hope to make many friends along the way. I hope you come on my journey with me.
House was a total loss? Insurance claim? did you ever rebuild? IBM and Research in Motion are lessons that no company can stay on top of the mountain forever.
Resident of Saugerties here. The parents of IBM'ers enrolled their kids in public school for the most part. When they lost their employment, there was definitely ancillary fallout. Why would Mario Cuomo refuse a tax credit to IBM, which was known to have been in financial distress at the time? Because the typcial IBM'er was an educated Reagan conservative Republican, and I'm sure Mr. Cuomo consulted the voter rolls. One thing you don't mention, though, is that the reason IBM Kington exists was to avoid the NYC Port Authority point-of-origin tax. I was told that Poughkeepsie was within the radius where the port authoity still had jurisdiction to levy export tarrifs. But Kingston was far enough away that they avoided the Port Authority tax. So Mr. Cuomo may also have had a case of hemorrhoidal pain over that lost tax revenue as well. I have to laugh when I see videos about Amazon's spheres, or Apple's campus or some other tech company putting on airs to look green or innovative. They can't even hold one ounce of fart gas to this sliver of what IBM's total economy managed. They didn't miss the PC market, they simply couldn't conceive of managing a retail operation. And they were right. The amount of managerial ineptitude was staggering. I worked for IBM in NYC in the 1990s post implosion, and everything way CYA all the way. At that time, they were "innovating" in nano-tech, but they couldn't manage to get Lotus Notes to send email from a handheld device. Those projects were "make it or break it" and the smart money knew to avoid them IMHO, meaning the people who opted to run them were short timers who would play hot potato with them. Look what they did to Lotus. So many possibilities to turn Lotus Notes into a bona fide operating system that would approximate where microsoft is now: a database cow pile in the cloud where you can't find or organize anything. But is was "ahead of its time", meaning slow and constantly crashing on average hardware specs. In the end they were giving it away for free with Thinkpad laptops. Then they donated the codebase for the office suite to OpenOffice and Microsoft heard: "cha-ching". Anyway, in my tenure, we were given targets like in a socialist planned economy. We had to "innovate" to meet them because it was impossible otherwise. So we integrated large scale off-shore software development contracting to India. No joke, that was IBM's lasting gift to the economy - sending high tech overseas. OK, not going to prattle on.
I worked jn po-town and talked to techs in Kinston in 92 and all the mainframes were shipping to warehouses. No customers! saw the writing on the wall took buyout and traveled Europe for 6 months. Should have sold all stock at top $170+, but kept sone as it crashed. Bad times watching company and community die.
It was hard watching IBM take the hits it received. I remember when they told us they had Apple on the ropes and they were going to get knocked out. Management couldn't have been more wrong. Look at where some is today.
worked on 308x and 3090. Lived in Port Ewen. 1985-1992. Great time going to IBM country club in Po-town. Started as a mainframe tech then to system programmer. On the IBM golf league , lots of education trips to Florida during spring break. Trained jn NCU and NCUA maintenance in Mn. Thought the gravy train would never end. But hay, in one year I retire with IBM retirement pension for rest of my live. Old School.
I worked for IBM (Spain) 2010 to 2018, I heard that around 1992-1993 IBM was on the verge of bankruptcy, then Lou Gerstner straightened the situation a bit
We had a summer house outside of Accord NY from the late 60s to the mid 90s. I remember IBMs presence in Kingston and the impact after they left; especially the unemployment. This only compounded the economic situation in Ulster county when Channel Master/Imperial Chrade shuttered in Ellenville a few years before. Both towns suffered and coincidentally. IBM and CM moved to NC. Such a shame. (PS I ended up an IBM tech on S/3090's, AS400's and the I'll fated PS/2...) Thanks for your retrospective on IBM and its aftermath. *PS parts of it are being demolished for an EPA remidation and repurpose
Dad ran a booming business in Kingston in the '50s and '60s alongside many pals hired at IBM who socialized and were service club partners and neighbors. Everyone knew IBM people! Then, a "group of politicians" hyper-taxed non-NYC New Yorkers to fund NYC's welfare world and forced the most productive demographic to points south. Including our family. And IBMers.
I didn't have that much footage. At that time, I was only able to go out and back. It would have been boring to have more footage. Now I can do a transitions and I ride a lot better. Still more might be boring. Thanks for watching and commenting
such a pity you can only purchase junk from China, where we chinese people enjoy good quality with affordable price in China. And making things even sad, is that even the junk Chinese product can beat all other options to get your buying.
Your story is quite similar to mine! I grew up in Jeannette Pa in West Moreland County and moved to New York. While growing up in Jeannette my best friend Ronnie Evans moved from Jeannette and moved to Trafford. Ronnie was a great little baseball player. Him and I grew up on the baseball field in Jeannette. Ronnie went on to become a teacher and a baseball coach at Penn-Trafford high school. Small world!
I worked there from 1989 to 1992 before lucky enough to get a transfer to Austin. The glitters wore off when they started laying off people. A few years later they got rid of the pension. Many of us bailed out then because we finally realized that loyalty doesn’t go both ways. The best decision I made was quitting IBM for a startup
will you ever upload another video? you hinted at it a long time ago, but I feel like if you were going to, you would have by now. you became a part of our lives bob! YOU TRULY DONT UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH YOU ARE MISSED!
Your video was funny! Now I'll have to add this to my list. Going in this area Memorial Day weekend by car from Indianapolis. What month was this recorded??
I'm living here now, just finishing my second month. It's a temporary apartment while we house hunt. The funny thing is, I've been loving every minute here, so who knows? It might wind up being permanent! Thanks for the walkaround and the history! I see it all on the thrice-daily dog walks, so it's nice to know the history. A bunch of things are still changing. The pizzeria (Dom's) is still healthy; the old drugstore across from it is now condemned. The old bank is an empty lot, and I'd wondered what used to be there. Parente's is now Club 80's, some sort of nightclub, and Esther's Treasures next door is now a pet groomer. Rumphshaker's is now Krick's and is one of the busier places in town.
My wife and i swapped out our stock PM tires with stock sized BFG KO2s within a 100 miles of purchase back in 2017. We went places that move vannies can only dream of. We now have Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws and the ride is much more comfortable on the highway, yet off pavement is just as capable IMO. You might do some research on the AT3Ws use by others in snowy conditions, they are recommended.
That other youtuber is flat out wrong. I've had rv's my whole life and have been full timing almost 6 years now and NOTHING gets more use than my microwave. This lifestyle doesn't even make sense without a microwave. Great video. Awesome van.
Hey fella I agree with a lot of what you lived and learned. It’s the same for me. We rolled down Short St. We had a watch out and typically somehow Trafford people listened to stop for the kids. The B Y Park the grants that were written by my dad and several members of the community to create a better environment for the whole community. Donations were appreciated and loved. I’m glad to see community members mentioned everywhere.
Bob my name is also Bob. I asked a about your daughter Kit,I am from Kingston Iam a backslider from my faith.I was wondering when your in town what church you go to I am looking for something
I have a 2018 3500 with about 60,000 miles. I was very disappointed when I first started driving it anywhere but paved roads because it would have traction problems on the slightest gravel, sandy or wet roads. Since replacing the stock tires with a higher end Michelin all weather tire (not all retain) I have improved mileage and traction. We've been in all kinds of conditions and now problems now so I am convinced it was just the tires. Factory tires were hard as rock and terrible tread design. They were made to deliver goods in city conditions and give fleet owners durability at lower cost. They ere not made to go off pavement. Neither is any big van.
