Made first phone call

From: Marvin Johnston <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Sun Sep 26 12:01:51 2004

I think Sellam absolutely did the right thing!!! A number of people here
in Santa Barbara have passed away with significant classic computer
related items. For one example, many of the IBM 1130 and Burroughs
manuals that Al has scanned came from someone who had worked with these
things for close to 40 years. *ALL* of those manuals were destined for
the recycle bin. The only reason they got saved was a friend of mine
called me after he saw them when he was picking up other equipment
there. I called his wife and was invited to come over and take what I
wanted (I took everything!) When I saw her again a couple of months ago,
his wife was very happy to hear that they have proved useful to others.

A friend of mine passed away many years ago, and I was called to see if
I would help with the stuff. He had been involved with microcomputers
from the first, and his father knew nothing of the value of this stuff.
Of course, at that point in time, a lot of classic stuff was still
deemed junk and went to that great storage space in the sky. Out of that
came an almost complete set of (can't remember the name right now)
cassette programs for the TRS-80 that were mailed out on a subscription
basis along with many of the docs and associated correspondence (he was
also an editor for a bit.) There were also boxes of documentation for
other now classic computers.

There are many such stories by myself and others on this list. I don't
know where you and your wife are coming from, but the main focus of most
of us on this list is saving classic computer related hardware,
software, docs, etc. And many of us have irreplaceable items as most
likely Don did. Again, Sellam did the right thing, and I am reasonably
sure it was also what Don would have wanted.



> On 19/09/2004 Sellam Ismail wrote:
> >I made an initial phone call to Don's number and got an answering machine
> >(presumably Don's voice is still on the OGM). I chose not to leave a
> >message. I'll try again later today.
>
> Sellam, I'm shocked by your lack of tact and respect. No matter how
> important Don's collection might be in your eyes, you shouldn't lose
> sight of the fact that his wife and family have just lost him. They
> probably couldn't care less about what happens to his stuff in the
> garage at this point.
>
> I've asked my wife for her opinion on this and she said that she
> would instantly scrap and toss my stuff if she ever found herself in
> a similar situation. I can't blame her.
>
> What do others think of this ?
>
> Greetings, Jos
Received on Sun Sep 26 2004 - 12:01:51 BST