The Serial Writer

You may think it all automatic, but when I was beginning my career, ahem, in way back when, these things were done by craftsman. Alas, I also lost my esteemed profession to computerization.

I had a very important and dare I say, creative task, of identification. By number.

We have in my family, great respect for the writer and the librarian, as much as for the reader. Hence, my eagerness to enter this profession. Like many pertinent inventions, the impetus came from governmental necessity. That bountiful Mother of Invention. The philosophy was one, if I may oversimplify, of Unification. By which I mean there was need to make uniform, as well as unique, our system of identification. It would not do, for example, to have ten or more John Smith's running around the cells.

Of course, like others, I got my start, as it were, on the bottom rung of the ladder, writing Prisoner numbers in white paint on the black of jailhouse jumpsuits. By hand, mind you. Each number unique, while encoding certain identifiers. Not unlike, the Dewey Decimal system. I excelled at my task and was promoted naturally. I advanced from serializing people, to creating barcodes for objects of all sorts, national and international.

This is where things began to wane. I regret, on my end, I saw a decline in business as global economy flourished. Fortunately, I had enough years behind me to look forward to a comfortable retirement, a respectable government stipend.

I can only add as final remark, my awe, at the advancements in my field. Not only are we serializing people and objects, by computer, but we are now also serial numbering intangible goods.

Truly a pinnacle of achievement!

03.12.2025

The Serial Writer challenge @Last