A BILL GODBOUT TALE? C-? Ed Sharpe? Archivist? for SMECC
BEWARE THIS NARTIVE WANDERS>?
A very old friend Bill Godbout of the s100 computer days and my first real commercial
buyer of any large quantity of surplus electronics material from me when I went into the
early part of my computer store and surplus electronics business was burned in the fire in
Paradise I have been informed. Very sad - He was a great guy - I met him at a computer
fair in as I remember San Jose California ? I believe it was at the fairgrounds ? (Fair
was run by a pleasant guy (was his name Craig or? Can someone clarify?) with the neatest
59 El Camino Chevy Truck (Prior to this I had never seen a ?59 before (I would love one!)
Steve Beleauh (sp?) in High School had a ?64 ) were I had taken mainly a bunch of odds and
ends but also some 8 inch floppy disc power supplies that Intel had scrapped at Empire
metals ( Gary and Ray no doubt had something to do with those ending up there ? Hi guys!)
and a box of AC power cords and some parts and stuff now what would be considered scrap
too....Bill Godbout had set up to sell. (of course, he had all kids of computer stuff his
company produced and other things he was a vendor for... He was a big guy in the BIZ in
those days, We of course had some power cords and Bill and I when talking got on the topic
of power cords for computers ... the new style...like all out pcs use now. ( the prior
version on one end the normal 3 prog plug in the wall plug and the other had oval ends and
round pins... and were available all over but not so the "NEW" style ( like we
use now) I ended up with many many palate loads ITT Courier Terminal Company in Tempe
Arizona ( They made IBM clone cluster terminal system -? but unlike? the? IBM? terminals?
had? non-clicking? keyboards)) was surplussing ... and had calculated the quantity and
cost carefully and beat the Finkelstein Brothers -> Mhz Electronics and Semiconductor
Surplus... Richard at MHz still alive Steve at Semi Passed away)... ALAS!! The brothers
miscalculated or used that as a reason for not getting the lot in later conversations, but
It set us up with more damn cords that I ever imagined I could even sell.
?
ANYWAY... First deal I did with him.... Telling Bill Godbout of all these cords he says
... well... "TRUST ME" ... "ship them to me and on receipt I will send you
a check!" and then he jokes about I shouldn?t trust anyone in this business saying
TRUST ME! But I did and true to his word his check arrived which set me up with enough
cash to make many other great buys of Minicomputers, parts and terminals as I started out.
Actually I think that is were the money came from to buy my first PDP-8 from Richard at
MHz Electronics he had laying about. It was a 8M or 8F like an 8E with omnibus but short
case so only accepting one Buss backplane and it used LEDS in the front panel vs the light
bulbs the 8E used. (I was later able to sell this for a large sum thus? increasing the
?Computer Exchange? working capital.
Thanks Bill. You will always be in our book as one of the original good guys.... and
thanks for being someone I could trust in dealings. God in Heaven... Take good care of old
Bill for me...