Hi Shawn,

 RH> My cousins tried to get my dad to use it when he was in his 90s to
 RH> communicate with them but I don't think it ever worked as well as
 RH> they wanted it to.

 SH> Mom can use it, but Dad won't.  The funny thing is Dad uses a computer
 SH> and my mother won't even consider using anything other then her phone
 SH> and tablet.

My dad got his first one in, IIRC, around 1979 or 1980, a TS-80. Mom
always wrote a weekly letter, making multiple copies (for 5 kids and her
mom) so Dad had her switch from a typewriter to the computer. In all the
years he had (various ones) it, he had to show her every week how to
turn it on and delete the previous one. Looking back, that may have been
one of the earliest signs of the dementia that eventually took her in
2014. The weekly letters had stopped some years before she passed away.


 SH> Growing up it was the opposite.  Mom would use the computer and Dad
 SH> would not.

We got our first one in 1984, a Commodore 64. Our younger daughter
wasn't quite 4; she and her older sister took to it (for games) quite
readily, before they were old enough to use it for school work. Kept the
C=64 for 10 years, before finally upgrading to a PC thru military
surplus sales. I still don't use it a lot, but more than I used the
C=64.


 RH> OK, you're covered. We bought one that sits on top of a propane stove
 RH> burner, used it a few times. Tricky part with that is getting it
 RH> regulated to just the right temperature.

 SH> I can see that would be difficult.  I got this electric one around 7
 SH> years ago when I was staying with a friend who's landlord wouldn't
 SH> replace the gas oven in the house because he knew Tom didn't cook.
 SH> It's been at the
 SH> trailer since then and I've some years brought it home if I knew I was
 SH> doing a big meal.  I don't need to now as my daughter lives in the
 SH> same building so I just go up and down using her oven and mine.

It helps to have a working oven in the house, even if it's only toaster
oven size. At one point we'd bought a toaster oven that would hold a
13"x9" cake pan, had to pass it on (to a friend) when we upgraded our
refridgerator. Just the extra few inches the new fridge was wider filled
the empty space the oven overhung into. Replaced it with one that'll
hold a 9" pan but I have to heat the big oven for anything bigger.


 RH> street also; I think we had about 30 trick or treaters last year
 RH> after having none the year before. We are always prepared; one year
 RH> in our rental house we had about 60 (some older kids (teens) as well
 RH> of little ones. Had just enough candy that year.

 SH> Very cool, I do miss it, but at least we got trick or treaters this
 SH> year for the one they do at the trailer park in August. ;)

By this time next week, all the trick or treaters will be in a sugar
coma. Down at the farmer's market today, all the vendors were passing
out candy to the kids so some have had an early start.


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


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