Medo da Informática
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Medo da Informática
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Momma's Washtub"IT'S JUST AFTER four on a late summer afternoon, and Mrs. Rebecca McGinness is sitting quietly at her kitchen table, sifting through a stack of cards and letters from family and friends. The door to the back porch stands open, and the songs of blue jays and cardinals drift through the screen. A dear friend of mine, Mrs. McGinness understands history better than anyone I know. You see, she was born in 1892. As this book is being written, Mrs. McGinness is preparing to celebrate her 107th birthday. She lives just a few miles from my house, and I often stop by to say hello and chat. She holds court in her kitchen, where she usually sits in a red-cushioned chair at the end of a long table. Mrs. McGinness was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1892, just three days before Grover Cleveland was elected president. She remembers well the stories her father and grandmother (both of whom had been slaves) told her about life as it used to be. Mrs. McGinness has also personally witnessed the drama of the twentieth century-from horses and buggies to space travel; from the Victrola to the Sony compact disc; from ink wells to Microsoft Word. "In the house where I was born," she says slowly, leaning forward in her chair, "we had kerosene lamps, no electricity. We didn't have any running water or plumbing either, just a hydrant in the backyard. We didn't even have a sink in the kitchen, just a big tin wash basin. We cooked and kept the house warm with wood and coal. That was it." Mrs. McGinness tells me it's normal for people to be frightened of change. When I say that some folks are nervous about how computers are changing the world, she smiles and shakes her head. "That's nothing new," she says. "Let me tell you about my momma. I can remember my father came home one day with a brand new washtub-even had a crank on the side so you could wring the clothes out. But my momma didn't want it. She wanted to keep on using her washboard just like she was used to. But one day she gave that new washtub a try, and she really liked it. She was tickled to death over it, once she realized how easy it was. She didn't want electricity either, said lightning would strike the house if we put those wires in there. She didn't want gas, said it would kill us. She wanted to stay with the coal and wood she was used to. But when I graduated from the Hampton Institute in 1915, I was a modern girl. And I came home to Charlottesville and had all those modern things put into my momma's house. She didn't want them. But you know, she was so tickled once she got used to them." Mrs. McGinness pauses, sits back in her chair, and sips on a glass of water. She dabs her lips with a tissue and clears her throat. "Those computers are just like my momma's new washtub," she sighs. "There's always something new coming along. Times always change. And you have to keep learning new things all the time. That's the way God wants it - wants us to keep learning and keep trying and keep understanding new things. You know, this is such a wonderful world. It really is a wonderful world. But you've got to change with it and grow with it, or it will leave you behind." (BAREFOOT, Coy, The QUIXTAR Revolution, Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA, pp. 6-7.)
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