Memoirs of a Visual Man
By R.S. Lindsay

When I was a young man (as the man says, "studying for the gallows"), I took it upon myself to get a college education. I enrolled as a freshman at Pennsylvania State University, following the advice of my uncle, Frank “Muggsy” Lindsay (San Quentin #8-35611A), who took time off from running through the swamps and dodging bloodhound teams and helicopter searchlights to give me the following advice: “My boy, it’s better to go to Penn State than to the State Pen.”

When I arrived at the Penn State campus in University Park, Pennsylvania, I started looking around for a part-time job to help to pay for some of my more important, college-related expenses, such as movies, late-night pizzas, speeding tickets, inebriation, etc. My father, who was paying my tuition and room-and-board expenses, had suggested that I get a part-time job when I got to college, in order to belay some of the costs of my education. I agreed, if only to stop him from pounding his fist on the kitchen table as he spoke.

A few days after arriving at Penn State, I answered a job ad that I found on the “Work Opportunities” bulletin board outside the Bursar in Shields building. "Student Operators wanted. Show 35-mm films, run slide projectors, and deliver TV/VCR units to various classes around campus. Hours flexible. Jobs scheduled daily between your own classes. Apply in person at Penn State Audio-Visual Department, Room 26 Willard Building."

I interviewed with Dan Schneider, the head of the Audio-Visual Department, in the offices at 26 Willard. After the interview, he hired me as a Student Operator. Thus began my five-year odyssey into one of the most bizarre, unpredictable, and nerve-wracking student jobs available on the Penn State campus.

After being hired, I went through a short training course at the A/V offices, where I learned how to set up, load, and operate 35 mm film projectors and slide carousel projectors. I also learned the layout of the Audio-Visual system on the Penn State campus. Each building on campus has its own audio-visual closet or storage cabinet, usually located in the basement of the building, in which movie projectors, slide carousels, audio speakers, take-up reels, and extension cords are stored. Hand-carts for moving the equipment through the building halls are usually stored in the A/V closet, or kept chained to the side of the A/V cabinet. TV/VCR units, used for showing videotapes to classes, are also kept in the closet, or chained to the A/V cabinet. A TV/VCR unit consists of a two-tiered steel cart, about five feet tall, mounted on wheels. A 21-inch TV is mounted on the top tier, connected by a patch cord to a VHS or Beta VCR that sits on the bottom tier. Both the TV and the VCR are chained to the cart to prevent students or instructors from "borrowing" either item after the class has finished watching the video.

The Audio-Visual Department has a storage vault of documentary films and videos on all subjects that are available to all professors and instructors at Penn State. The Audio-Visual Department can also special order a film from a distributor at the request of an instructor. When an instructor wants to show a film to a class, they call the Penn State Audio-Visual Department to pre-order the film they want and to schedule a date and time for the showing. On the day before the showing, the A/V Department sends the film to the appropriate classroom building and stores it in the A/V cabinet there.

As a Student Operator, my job was to pick up the projector and film on the day of the showing, take them to the assigned classroom at the appropriate time, set up the projector and show the film, and return these items afterwards to the A/V cabinet. If the instructor needed to show slides, I set up a slide projector in the classroom. (The instructors usually brought their own slides.) Or, if an instructor wanted to show a video, I would deliver a TV/VCR unit to the classroom, leave it there for the duration of the class, and return it to the A/V closet when the class was over.

MARATHON MAN

My first assignment as a Student Operator involved--quite literally--a marathon tour of the Penn State campus. By mistake, I was assigned to deliver 3 different TV/VCR units to three different classrooms in three different buildings at the same time. It was not unusual for Student Operators to make multiple deliveries of audio-visual equipment to classrooms located in the SAME building. For example, on a given day, you might be assigned to deliver a TV/VCR unit to the 10 a.m. psychology class in 221 Willard Building, and also be assigned to show a film to an engineering class down the hall in 214 Willard that same hour. This was fairly easy, since you only had to drop off the TV/VCR unit in 221 Willard, go show the film in 214 Willard, and return to 221 to pick up the TV/VCR after the class was over. But it WAS unusual to be assigned to make three different audio-visual deliveries at the same time, in three different buildings on opposite corners of the Penn State campus.

For my first job as a Student Operator, I was assigned to deliver one TV/VCR to 210 Sackett Building, another to 101 Chambers Building, and a third to 316 Boucke Building, all in time for the 8 a.m. classes. I thought this delivery schedule seemed a little unusual, but being a new employee, I was reluctant to question my first assignment. I simply assumed that this was the way things were done around here. So on the appointed day, I rose at 7 a.m. and went first to Boucke Building, located on the east side of the campus and closest to my dormitory. I delivered the TV/VCR unit to 316 Boucke, then jogged a half-mile across campus to Chambers Building, located on the campus's northern edge. I delivered the second TV/VCR unit to 101 Chambers, then huffed another half-mile down the campus to Sackett, located on the south end. I got to 210 Sackett just in time to find Jim Brooks, my supervisor, delivering the third TV/VCR to the classroom. He explained that he'd made an error on my work schedule, that Student Operators were not normally given simultaneous assignments in different buildings, and apologized for his mistake. I nodded and said, "Horrgh," or something to that effect, while scanning the floor for a soft spot on which to collapse.

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