A Change in Technology: Alice Holloway

Alice Holloway, a very sympathetic and wise old lady, lives in the Leisure Vale Convalescent home located in Glendale. At the age of sixty-eight, Alice is very healthy and active in school and the community. Although she’s alone in Glendale with very few relatives around, she constantly volunteers at different organizations and takes typing classes in the mornings. Her days are mostly spent in her cozy little room where she sows, makes clothes, and reads. As a teenager in the early twentieth century, Alice had no encounter with computers and now feels that she should catch up with the advanced technology of today.

In High School, a library and books were the only sources available to obtain the information you searched for; but you would just go find somebody that was knowledgeable in the area of your research most of the time. Typewriters back in the days were very hard to use as well. You just pounded those manual typewriters like a good thing and when you made a mistake you would go back and erase it. Even though it was complicated, that lifestyle back then was something you had to accept and get used to because it was the only way to find information.

Because computers were not available, I didn’t notice any difference. If you grow up without something, you don’t realize or miss it [computers] because it’s not there in the first place. Also, since I had no contact whatsoever with computers back in high school, I’m really not knowledgeable enough to notice ways that I have been affected by this change.

More than affecting me, it totally changed the society and I think it is for the better. I like change in the society, especially when it’s progressive. It also changed the way a person would work. Like my great-son-in-law who’s a computer expert and that’s how he makes his living and I think that’s wonderful.

Unlike jobs I had when I was young, jobs today are mostly computerized. Back then I have done some restaurant work for forty years and some retail work as well. There were no computers back then for people working in restaurants except for the “restaurant” people, in other words, the cashiers and manager. The same restaurant work changed. You would find people ordering food or drinks in a computer at a restaurant. Not quite like a McDonalds restaurant but a quiet place where you would sit down at a table and order your food and drinks and the server (waiters) would go to a cash register and push all the buttons in the machine.

Another experience with computers was at a grocery store when I started scanning things with this little machine. That was my very first experience with any computers or anything having to do with computers. While working in a retail store, the cash register was also computerized; so I had to learn to use that type of computer, even though it isn’t the typical computer. Although it has been used for many years in stores already, these two instances were the only ones I had to cope with a computer in order to maintain a living back in the days.

This change, the use of computers, was also very strange to me. Especially when my grandchildren, who were in kindergarten, first, and second grade, started learning how to use a computer. So I thought, ‘this is wonderful! But boy am I in the dark ages.’ Here are these little kids learning how to use computers and I knew nothing about this new technology. I felt that I should better go back to school, and even if it took me fifteen years to get back in school I have done it. That’s why I went back to school and I’m learning how to use a computer.

I’m taking a typing class, which actually is a keyboard lesson on a computer. Taking the keyboard class, I learned that I have to be very gentle with the keys unlike a typewriter. I learned that you have to be very gentle with the machine or you get a whole row of whatever you are trying to get instead of a single letter. According to my experience with typewriters these new ones are far more superior and a far better product than the manual typewriter.

I also went back to learn about computers and know about them just enough to work with and know what I’m doing on a computer. I’m learning just enough to get along in this world with; like when I go to the library where I will have access to a computer, I want to be able to use one to research because I don’t want to live in the dark ages.

At first it was very strange to me and difficult to learn. It was harder especially because I am used to doing everything by hand. It was also quicker for me to do things manually until I finally learned the basics on a computer. Then it was easy. Anything is difficult until you learn it and once you do learn it, it’s much easy to handle.

Computers are as knowledgeable as the person working on the computer. For instance, if you put garbage into the computer, you get garbage back. I know this because I have made mistakes even on the cash register I worked with and if you make a mistake, it’s going to come right back at you. I’ve never used a computer or Internet in high school but the advances in technology are wonderful. I think this change is a positive influence to all, very positive.

Interviewed by Priscilla Yoo