Chester has two major industries, tourism and timber. For many years Elmer drove logging truck for Collins Pine Lumber a large timber company located in Chester, and after my sister and Elmer retired many years ago they would spend some of their summer months in Chester with friends and associates. After we got the trailer parked and hooked up to all the utilities, Curtis and I went to the Knotbumper, a restaurant and ate dinner.

While we were there I got into a discussion with our waitress a lady named Mel. During the course of this conversation the subject of computers came up. Mel was dead set against computers and she gave several reasons as to why she felt this way. I listened intently to all she had to say, as she was repeating a lot of the same arguments that I had used on my children many times before they finally broke down my resistance and persuaded me to try out this electronic marvel. The following paragraphs are some of the arguments that she put forth and I felt like it was de-ja-vu. You know like this was me uttering this same logic to my children a few years ago.

In addition to the daily paper, technology races ahead and all of life is found on a screen, either computer or TV. Besides acronyms that confuse me a whole new language is developing that I don't speak or understand. Modems, mega bytes, sound bites, Internet, World Wide Web, Fax, Yahoo, E Mail, CompuServe, and http.com/ are terms I fail to comprehend. I'm still in the process of mastering English and it is rapidly disappearing.

The question has arisen in our house: should we get a computer? We have had some light discussion on the matter now and again but that's all. We have managed to function so far without one. At this point in time it's not the matter of need as much as want. Do we really want another gadget in our house?

At present we are resisting joining the rest of the world in purchasing one of these devices. Does that make us obsolete? Probably!! Will our decision cause us to lose contact with life? I don't know.

Recently we visited a retired couple, they had a whole room devoted to electronic boxes that spit out messages and information. Several screens glowed simultaneously. It was another world this room in which they spent so much time.

To them it was user friendly. To me it struck me as cold, sterile, and isolated. I like the sound of the voice on the phone saying, Hi Dad! I love to get the letter in the mailbox that the other person has written and touched. The letter that says without words, I thought of you today.

Does one get the same warm feeling from a glowing screen with a message as one gets when recognizing the hand writing on an envelope? Will telephones, mailboxes, and pens soon be antiques found in shops that sell every day items of yesteryear?

I wonder about the historians and biographers of the future. Will the discovery of forgotten software or a long lost hard disk thrill them as much as an unknown manuscript or a dusty box of correspondence excites present day researchers? Somehow I doubt it!

There are many considerations I have to make before racing down the computer highway. The first and foremost is , do I want to give up the spare bedroom I use for a guest? The answer to that is a resounding, No! It's taken me over forty years to achieve this luxury. After raising four children (all pack rats) I like having an empty closet and a room just for overnight visitors.

Two thirds of my life has been spent anxiously exerting " parental control" over maturing children. I went out dancing to celebrate my freedom when the last one graduated high school. I would have to be masochistic to purchase a communication invention that offered me a P.C. option. I may be weird but I'm not crazy!

Every day much is happening around me that I do observe. Perhaps things that screen watchers miss. I live in an incredible universe that is there for me every day. I don't even need to go on line. My grand child is keyboard and screen orientated. I marvel at her abilities at such a tender age, but I don't envy her. I just hope she doesn't live her life vicariously. I want her to stop and smell the flowers, feel the wind in her face and watch the grass grow.

I understand much information and entertainment can be found surfing the Net. I know you can even play bridge with a computer. I wonder if it's as much fun as inviting another couple over and playing cards around the kitchen table?

As an individual who doesn't even swim, I don't think I'm ready to surf. Instead of hovering over a multimedia computer and monitor I'd prefer spending my day grubbing in the garden, or out on a trail hiking somewhere enjoying mother nature.

Maybe some day in the future I'll be converted to learning about remotes, rams, and roms, but not on any day the sun shines. Right now I don't choose to be plugged into the program and browse the netscape. I enjoy being disconnected, dropped out and drifting. It may not be interactive or virtual reality, but it's a pleasant way of life that suits me. I'm an old fashioned guy that abhors the very thought of a mouse in the house.

Then I awoke from the trance that this lady Mel had put me in, and realized this was her talking and not me, as I was in fact swayed by my childrens opinion along time ago and was in fact the owner of one of these contraptions.

Well I guess Mel just showed me where the bones were buried. I can certainly sympathize with her as I felt the same way she does a little over a year ago, but this cold sterile computer showed me it had a warm, friendly, nature buried deep in it's Pentium Chip. Deep down in my Hewlett Packards hard drive lives a soft, understanding and mainly forgiving word processor, data base, and spread sheet. So I really believe that if Mel would give this user friendly rascal a chance, she might develop a lifetime relationship that would make her family jealous.

Speaking of family, my granddaughter Jessica who is the pride of this grand father, had to exercise some diplomacy with her other grandfather Rick Ljung a couple of weeks ago. Some of you may have heard this story, but it bears repeating.

I will tell you a cute story about our grand daughter Jessica. She goes to preschool three day's a week, but on Tuesday and Thursday she stays with her grand parents. On Tuesdays she stays with her paternal grand parents, Rick and Jane Ljung. On these occasions the three of them have a routine of where they sit to have their meals. During the Memorial Day holiday Rick's brother Harry came up from Los Angeles to enjoy the jazz festival in old Sacramento, and celebrate Rick's birthday. While he was here he was sitting in Rick's place, and Jessica saw her papa Rick sitting in her chair and said your in the wrong chair, and Rick said that's OK because I'm the boss. She immediately told him, "your not the boss, Jesus is boss", and Rick replied " Jesus might be the boss, but I am boss here", at which she replied, " your not the boss, your a pretender". I don't think he had a response after that.

Mel this little grandchild will be five in October, but I will guarantee you that she will take the time to smell the flowers and pick a lot of them, as I took the time to place her small face amongst them almost from the moment of her birth. She also has been working with a computer for over a year, so there is a happy land of compromise some where between the sand box and the graveyard. KEN.