Here are a few more messages you have sent me in response to something you saw in this column, edited for space and anonymity. Sorry I have to pass by some good words, but there is so much I want to thank you for. Maybe later.
A local confessed gadget-lover empathized when I wrote of my love/hate relationship with electronic correspondence. “Four solid years of heartbreak ensued,” he/she commented.
“Three times I have lost everything…EVERYTHING…from my planner (but hey, I’m savin’ hundreds of dollars.
“I religiously backup my hard drives, yet I had only one successful restore. I had one bad backup CD and one buggy software version that prevented restore.
“Losing your contact list….especially when your contact list is the lifeblood of your occupation, is traumatic.
“I’m now back with the paper version, which amazes my friends….
“I visited a very high tech company a few months back, and a snarky VP there commented on my paper day planner. We then swapped stories about software crashes for 10 minutes.
“I’m sticking with paper planners…reluctantly…for the forseeable future.”
Been there, doing that.
When I wrote about the little-known fact that a large number (according to my sources 80,000) of German-Americans naturalized by birth or decree, and immigrants) were rounded up and incarcerated loosely on the West Coast, a lot of people said they had never heard such, or denied it.
I found too much evidence to accept that, and one well-credentialed student said this:
“Trying to have trials for all of them was not feasible. They were fed and housed decently and we didn’t burn any of them.
“I had one uncle with three purple hearts fighting Germans. Not German-Americans of course, but in war it seems they are all terrorists – even today.
“Germans are hard-headed and despise change also, which further caused problems with Americans who weren’t Germans.”
When I wrote about Parkinson’s Disease, the same reader wrote: “Thank you for your moving description. Parkinson’s is all about maintaining your quality of life. Tens of thousands of people have been helped by speech and physical therapy developed by LSVT Global….Contact me if I can be of service to you or any of your readers.”
F.S.,thank you for that.
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My puzzlement about cleaning a dusty computer by blowing compressed air into its nooks and crannies was answered by (I’m sure) a techie. He (I’m sure) wrote: “ I suppose by now someone in the know has already told you NOT to clean your computer on the inside with a vacuum cleaner. Also unplug everything.
“Why should you NOT do that? Simple, there is a good chance that you will blow some units with static electricity by getting too close with a vacuum cleaner.”
He continued to tell me to go outside to blow out the remaining dust, now in smaller particles, and when you bring the PC back in the house, “You must also keep the compressed air can upright to keep from blowing wet air into the computer parts.
“If you aren’t totally savvy about reconnecting all of the connections back, then you should put a label on each one with a 1,2,3. etc., on it and the same number by the hole to which it connects.
“Keep your fingers off everything inside – you are sure to blow something with static.
“Now if you have maybe $75, take it to a pro!”
Another reader was kind enough to join me in telling the tales of our ancestry, thanking me for writing about genealogy.
“Sallie, thank you so much for sharing the story about your Daddy. I, too, am an ancestry loon. I have four file drawers full of documents and information…. I even have a satellite view of an old family cemetery in Jones County, North Carolina. I want to visit that cemetery….
“Also, my great-grandmother’s uncle is buried in a grave in the Confederate Cemetery in Spotsylvania. He was only 17 years old when he died and from all the information I can find none of his family were ever able to visit his grave. That is so sad to me.
“According to family history my great-grandfather on my mother’s side wasn’t really who everybody thought he was. Supposedly, he had witnessed or knew of a murder in North Carolina and left there around 1870, settled in or around Soperton, Ga., married, and became someone else.
“I searched for years through different family groups with his original family name but haven’t been able to find a connection. So I guess he will always be the person he decided to become after leaving North Carolina.”
And not to leave out the smallest notes, I occasionally get one like this, via the USPS: “Thank you, Sallie, for your column yesterday. I surely did enjoy it and agree with all you wrote! Love, J.”
No, I thank you, J.H. Very much.
