Pam, Not sure of the name of the Motel after all these years, but I'm pretty sure it was on El Camino. As I recall, they had more than one training room set up and I think there were only 2 and maybe 3 students working at one time. So, there was plenty of room to separate students a bit and the noise really wasn't all that bad. Also, the training was broken up a bit as most of us had to get used to the vibrating array against the finger, so could really only work for relatively short periods of time at first. TSI was pretty small in those days and most everyone from Jim Blis on down came through the training rooms at one time or another, and Jone Blis was one of the instructors. Don On Wed, 17 May 2006 10:30:35 -0700, Pam Drake wrote: Don, Interesting! I never knew that the classes were once held at the motel. Was that the Flamingo? Was the training one-on-one with several teams in the classroom? That must have been really noisy! Or did they try to teach one big class? I wonder how many classes had been held before yours? It's just so interesting to think you didn't have a nice private classroom. How things have changed. Pam -----Original Message----- From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of don bishop Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 9:21 AM To: optacon list 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 To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. __________ NOD32 1.1543 (20060517) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject.