The bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941..
The bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941..
Tuberculosis.
Listening to Morey Amsterdam’s comedy show; watching the Mystery Lady across the street; listening to the news; reading the newspaper.
Thoughts of his parents, sisters, and home life; playing stickball games with his friends; pigeon racing; Joe Louis’s 1938 victory in his rematch against Max Schmeling for the world heavyweight championship; Sundays spent at Grandma McCue’s house with his entire family.
Bed rest; pneumothorax (temporarily collapsing the lung); and thoracoplasty (removing ribs from the chest wall in order to permanently collapse the infected lung).
Anna and Eadie, his cousins who were stricken with polio when they were young. They spent many months in iron lungs until they were finally able to breathe on their own and learned to walk again.
The look and smell; the many rules; the burden of having to earn privileges. Although the patients shared a common goal—to recover and be allowed to leave the sanitarium–they felt very anxious about their ability to function outside the walls where they spent so many years.
A relapse. He had to weigh himself every week to make sure he wasn’t losing weight, which was a common symptom of TB. On the way to the store where he weighed himself, he would have anxiety attacks about having a relapse.
Henry and Fritz at the neighborhood ice cream parlor hired Walter to be a soda jerk.
Fritz decided to enter a monastery.
Sperry Gyroscope Company
.
Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist and political scientist, introduced the concept of the 80/20 rule, also known as Pareto’s principle or the “law of the vital few.”
He learned that he needed to have a consensus before making and implementing new ideas.
The Polaris Program which produced the Navy’s nuclear-armed ballistic missile system. Sperry produced the navigational equipment and managed the navigation system.
Authorization #72035. He learned to always stay true to his core beliefs.