Why Did Clarence Skip Ellis Break Social Norms

“Life can get hard and things can go wrong, but no matter what, you've got to stay strong.”(-Unknown) Not many people have heard of Clarence ‘Skip’ Ellis, but the people that have, have been amazed by his story of perseverance, which caused him to break the social norms in America in the 60’s and 70’s. Clarence, known by his close family and friends as ‘Skip,’ was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1943. He was born into a family filled with poverty being one of five children being raised by a single mother. The streets of the Southside of Chicago were full of gang violence and all out war, but he kept to himself, which helped him survive and avoid that kind of stuff. The gang violence had spread to every part of his life, even at school where he wasn't a ‘cool kid’ because …show more content…
“He was assigned as a security guard, and specifically told not to touch the company's new computer that was expensive and not commonly seen in 1958.” (World of Computer Science) The job wasn't only protect the company and it building, but he was also protecting their prize possession, a brand new computer. This wasn't the most exciting job ever, but that didn't cause Skip to hate it. He actually loved the job because in his idle times he would read the computer manuals because he wasn't allowed to touch the computer itself. The actions he displayed would seem silly to the average person, but then “ One day, an important computer project had run out of new punch cards, then used to enter data into computers. “ (World of Computer Science) Ellis knew this was his chance and sprung into action. Within reading the manuals and knowledge gain by slowly learning more about computers, Ellis know how to reuse old cards by changing a setting in the computer. The experience became a turning point in Ellis’s life and sparked a passion for computers that would last a