89-year-old emailer just getting started

He bought a laptop shortly after Christmas and has conquered the knack of emailing.

Rev. Perry, who says he doesn’t do a lot of reading and doesn’t care much for most of what’s on television, says he decided to enter the computer age for two reasons.

“The evenings are long and my daughter, Dora, who lives in South Carolina, she’s been after me to get one,” he said.

He chuckles and adds that he can’t say that is was a wise move.

“There’s so much in it I will never live long enough to begin to break through the shell so to speak.”

Rev. Perry was in the pastoral ministry for 40 years in churches from Maine to Florida and over to Illinois but returned to Bear Point, his birthplace, in 1995 to pastor at the Advent Church a few houses from his home.

His nephew Scotty Cameron ordered the computer, hooked it up for him and removed nonessential programs.

“He says he took a lot of stuff out of it that I’ll never use. I don’t know what he did with it,” said Rev. Perry.

Three times a week he drives to the Barrington library for computer classes. He remains very impressed by what the machines are capable of.

“I can’t say that I was surprised but I was somewhat amazed. It’s unbelievable, unless you are really interested and get into that stuff, what there is on that little machine. It’s just unbelievable,” he said.

“My father never saw a television, never drove a car, never had a car. It’s a different world all together the last 50 years.”

Renata Tweedy teaches Rev. Perry computer skills through the Community Access Program at the Barrington Library. She describes her oldest student as “very determined”.

“I’ve appreciated that,” she said. “He may have difficulty remembering some of it, but he just keeps at it. I’ve been really pleased with his progress.”

Tweedy thinks it’s an excellent idea for seniors to learn the new technology.

“Absolutely, if only to give them the opportunity to keep in touch with people who have moved geographically. I find that a lot of my older students, that’s their main reason for coming to me. They want to learn to use email so they can keep in touch with their children and their grandchildren,” she said.

Rev. Perry agrees, and although email was the service that drew him, he admits to enjoying some of the other information he’s finding, like being able to view his community from the sky via Google Earth recently.

“I regret that I’m so old. There’s so much that I could have learned and appreciated years ago. But I guess that’s the way life is.”

“I think it’s a good thing to venture into. There’s so much out there that we’re not aware of, have no knowledge of… why not tap into it? We can always cipher out the good and the bad,” he said.