Then came, of course, computers. I liked computers immediately for their editing functions and they taught me to spell. Yes, by pointing out my errors in a nonjudgmental way (if a red underline is nonjudgmental) and showing me the correct spelling they accomplished an educational feat which a college Comp 101 teacher had suggested I might never accomplish because, maybe I was dyslexic. No, I'm not dyslexic and now I can spell.
For years I worked on a PC and when my office upgraded, on a couple of occasions, I was given one of the outmoded machines. I didn't need the bells and whistles of the new ones, all I really wanted to do was write and edit what I wrote. But along the way I heard again and again how much better Macs were than PCs and what enthusiastic and downright lovable people Mac users were. Eventually I became a Mac user too. I found the Apple stores in NYC, where I lived, full of enthusiastic young people who did not condescend to older people when I took introductory classes or on the occasions when I went to the "Genius Bar" for advice or trouble shooting.
I'm not in NYC any more but there's a Mac store in my town. They have mature sales people and a back room with, probably, a few "geniuses" and they gave very good classes. I like the atmosphere. But, being a white haired woman (although I don't think I'd be called a "little old lady") who is obviously not young, I hesitate to take my small problems in to the store. But today I went in with my two latest problems. I knew there would be embarrassingly simple solutions so I was prepared to be firm in stating that when they did a "spring cleaning" on the machine not long ago two settings got changed and I didn't know how to change them back.
Happily a 40ish man I'd never seen before was polite and, indeed, the problems were easily resolved, in one case as simple as moving an indicator from off to on. (But I didn't know how to even get to that sub-screen). The exchange took five minutes; I was treated courteously and I am not in the employ or pay of Apple. But I do tell friends who are often even less computer literate than I to buy a Mac and NOT, absolutely NOT, from Best Buy. Mac people are nice people. Even to white haired ladies who aren't little and don't think they're old.
