Touching.

Washington DC isn't "likely" to be ready

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0010fO

Thanks, for sharing some history Ed.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999

Answers

thanx- I had missed that one. Actually, the saddest thing about that letter is that it was written by an 18 year old boy! How many 18 year olds can write anywhere near as well as that today?? The computer "may" help encourage literacy, but I'm not sure LOL, IMHO, ROFLMAO, etc is way up there, along with :), and all the rest.......sad.

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), June 29, 1999.

farmer,

Not only was he an 18 year old boy at the time, but the letter that I cited was one of the few items written in English that have survived through the generations of my family. As a typical university student of the time, he studied Latin and Greek -- and most of his diaries and journals (which probably had MUCH more interesting details of his personal life) were written in Greek. Needless to say, members of my generation don't have a clue about their contents...

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@newmexico.mountains), June 29, 1999.

Ed,

Thanks for sharing that letter. I have an old store ledger that my great-great-grandfather took with him everytime he went to the general store. He also recorded birth and deaths of family members in it. Without it I never would have traced my family heritage. I consider it the only thing of value in this house!

It scares me to think how much more difficult it might be to get historical information if the computers crash.

-- GeeGee (GeeGee@madtown.com), June 29, 1999.

great story, Ed! yes, things could be worse. my ancestors on my mother's side were Acadians who were expelled from acadia after the english conquest, and ended up in rhode island. i have nothing against rhode island, but who would want to leave their home forever?

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), June 30, 1999.