Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
- From: "Anthony Vece" <ajvece@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 09:47:25 -0400
Hi Cindy;
I also attended classes in Philadelphia for the Optacon in 1975.
I don't know what I would do without an Optacon.
I mean the talking comptuers today are wonderful but give me a slate and
stylus and an Optacon any day of the week.
Anthony
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cynthia Handel" <cindy425@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 8:16 AM
Subject: Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
>I went to the Western Pa. School for Blind Children. In late 1973 and
>early
> 1974, I had Optacon classes. For much of that time, the Optacons had to
> stay in the classroom and the only practice we got was in class or if we
> arranged to go during a study hall to practice. I was so excited when I
> was
> allowed to take the Optacon out of the classroom and try it out on things
> in
> my dorm. I remember carrying it with the strap across my body and holding
> on to it so it wouldn't dare bump anything...like it was gold or
> something.
> Then, at the end of my class, I had the opportunity to buy one for $100.
> My
> parents bought it for me and that was the beginning of my 32 or 33 years
> with the Optacon.
>
> My husband took a class in Philadelphia in 1977 or 1978. He said it was
> just amazing when he took the Optacon to work and could use it to read
> print, in the office. Then, he got a CRT lens and could, for the first
> time
> in about ten years of being a computer programmer, actually read the
> screen.
>
> Cindy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pam Drake" <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 3:30 AM
> Subject: RE: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
>
>
> Goodness!
>
> This is a fun thread.
>
> There were three of us from Social Security in my October or November
> class
> of 1975; can't remember which now. There were also a couple of sighted
> Optacon teacher trainees.
>
> Four of us went to San Francisco on Saturday and stayed overnight. What a
> wonderful memory!
>
> My first week was rough. On Thursday night the head of training asked to
> come visit me at the motel. I was sure she was going to tell me I wasn't
> making the grade and should go home. I had friends in the area and had
> gone
> to dinner a couple of nights and was sure she was going to tell me I
> hadn't
> been applying myself.
>
> I tearfully told her I would do whatever I needed to do in order to stay
> in
> the class. She told me she had a weekend assignment for me. "I hear some
> of you are going to San Francisco on Saturday. I want you to come back
> here
> tomorrow night, plug in your Optacon, go to San Francisco and have a good
> time, and don't touch your Optacon till Monday. You're trying too hard!"
>
> What a shock! What a relief! I did as she instructed and had a fantastic
> weekend.
>
> From Monday on it seemed that I couldn't make a mistake. I had just
> gotten
> myself too tense and upset.
>
> I had somehow managed to forget money for the final Wednesday lunch and
> had
> borrowed money from Martha, one of the instructors. AT the end of the
> training I wanted to try to read something written by hand. Another
> teacher
> was working with me that day; and I had said I wanted to see Martha to
> give
> her money.
>
> The teacher, whose name I unfortunately can't remember, handed me a
> carefully printed piece of paper which read, "Pay Martha for lunch.
>
> Sorry if I got a little long-winded, but what memories this thread is
> bringing back!
>
> By the way, those of you who have had your optacons since the earlier days
> will remember that we were taught to always keep our machines plugged in
> when not in use. No one understand the effect constant charging had on
> battery packs. I wonder how many packs were replaced prematurely because
> they were not allowed to fully discharge often enough.
>
> Pam
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Linda Gehres
> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 4:55 PM
> To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
>
> Don, what memories your e-mail evokes! I remember going to Palo Alto in
> 1975 with several others from Social Security Administration and staying
> at
> a Best Western and being transported to the TSI headquarters. Ironically,
> when my brother began working for a company called Catalytica in Mountain
> View, he told me that his employer was right nextdoor to the TSI facility
> which by the early 80's had moved. But I digress. At the time I was in
> class, there were also a couple of sighted people being trained to work
> with
> new Optacon users. One of them wrote a letter to us just after he
> returned
> home, and I remember actually trying to decipher his signature. At last I
> understood why even sighted people have difficulty in distinguishing the
> handwriting of others.
>
> Linda Gehres
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Harry Bassler" <HBassler@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 9:47 AM
> Subject: Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
>
>
>> Don,
>> I was in the second class at TSI just behind you.
>> Harry
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "don bishop" <w6smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: "optacon list" <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:21 PM
>> Subject: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
>>
>>
>>> Just changed the subject from "some comments about the optacon" or at
>> least pretty much that subject line.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I remember the first time I actually used my first optacon.
>>>
>>> I was in a training class given by TSI in Palo Alto. It was held at a
>> motel where we students stayed for a week or two weeks depending on
>> people's
>>> schedules.
>>>
>>> TSI also had a suite there where the training was conducted.
>>>
>>> They brought us into a training room with a long table. In front of
>>> each
>> of us was this big
>>> wooden box and a brand new Optacon sitting inside. I think it still had
>> the plastic around the case. In those days the OPtacon came in a large
>> wooden
>>> carrying case with thick foam padding. (soft packs were not even heard
>>> of
>> yet.)
>>>
>>> It was like being at the door of a new world and even just seeing the
>>> unit
>> without using it was liberating. I can still remember the new smell of
>> the
>> unit with
>>> the leather protective case.
>>>
>>> And then the fun began. So did the work. <smile>
>>>
>>> The excitment of actually reading print material, even if it was just a
>> training document, was something I'll never forget.
>>>
>>> Since that day in 1972 I've read virtually every kind of printed
>>> material
>> at one time or another.
>>>
>>> I still am a bit in awe when I look at an old book published in the
>>> early
>> 1900s or before and realize that many many blind people lived in "homes
>> for
>> the blind",
>>> or other institutional or protective settings, and that reading such a
>> book independently wasn't even considered possible.
>>>
>>> It does put the progress in the world in some sort of perspective. I
>> think this is largely why I've always felt that the discontinuance of
>> Optacon production
>>> was truly a step backward from independence for blind people.
>>>
>>> Don
>
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