[GreenKeys] Colors

[jhhaynes at earthlink.net]

Oh, yeah, I remember when I first went to work for UCSC in 1968 and
everything was new and the furniture was mostly yellow (mustard) and
some light gray (putty).  Those were the days when IBM was also into
colors, so the computer was bright blue.  Other choices were red and
white and I think there was a yellow available too.

One of my favorite old war stories was told me by an employee of Amdahl
Corp.  Their computers were bright orange.  One of their first customers
was Texas A&M University, whose school color is maroon and whose
deadly rival is the University of Texas, whose color is orange.
So before they could install the Amdahl computer they had to bring in
a bucket of maroon paint.

Now the Western Union offices were issued cans of gray-green paint, and
when business was slow and things were looking a little dingy the
employees would spend their time putting on another coat of paint.
Which is why when you see old W.U. equipment you often see many many
layers of paint over everything, including the parts that were not
meant to be painted, like the nameplates.