Octogenarian Takes On Tech

(And Finds There’s An App For That)

By Nancy K. Crevier

She grew up in a cold water flat in New York City in the 1920s and 30s, and while her family enjoyed the luxury of a radio, they did not have central heat, nor did they have a telephone. Instead, a water brigade of voices hollered from the one flat with a phone to the next, until it splashed the young Ilse Foster with the news that her boyfriend was calling. “That was our communication, in those days,” laughed Ms Foster.

 “I think the very first job I ever had was the first time I used any kind of new technology,” recalled Ms Foster. “I used an addressograph for address labels in the store where I worked,” she said.

It was not until several years later, married and living in White Plains, N.Y., that Ms Foster had a telephone in her home, and learned to operate a car. Then, it was yet a few more years before they owned a television. “That was about 1949. I saw Queen Elizabeth on TV then.”

She has come a long way since those days. As a librarian at Masuck High School in Monroe for 38 years, she learned to use many tools, including computers. She is fully modernized in her Monroe home, with a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, a microwave, a color television, and a personal computer all pieces of her everyday life. She has a cordless landline telephone, and three years ago, she got a cellphone.

“I’ve always loved new technology,” claimed Ms Foster. And she proved that when, on Saturday, April 2, she attended the Newtown Ecumenical Workcamp Students’ breakfast at Newtown Congregational Church and walked out with what is probably her biggest technological coup ever.

Ms Foster, 87, has been a member of Newtown Congregational Church for more than 60 years, and is a big supporter of the annual work camp programs. Through 2010, she had served as a chaperone for eight of the Newtown youth groups’ annual summer outreach programs. This year she passed up the work camp trip in favor of returning this coming year to Biloxi, Miss., with the church’s adult outreach group. “But I wanted to continue to support the kids, so I went to the breakfast,” Ms Foster said.

The work camp breakfast also featured a raffle. “I had put in $30 worth of tickets and hadn’t even one thing to show for it,” she said. Still, when a young girl came to her table selling chances to win an iPad 2, the most sought-after electronic device on the market today, she handed over $10 more, for three chances. (The iPad 2 was donated anonymously to raise money for the work campers.)

“I knew basically what an iPad was. I really wasn’t aiming for it,” Ms Foster said, “and I figured if I did win it, I’d give it to my grandson, Hans.” But when the emcee pulled out a ticket and read her name, “I was so excited. And when I saw what it was, I said, ‘I’m not that old. I’m going to learn to use it,’” she exclaimed.

The learning curve has been a little steeper than just turning on a television or picking up a phone, said Ms Foster, but she is not afraid to reach out for assistance in learning to use her iPad. Her grandson, despite having lost out on the iPad, has helped her a great deal in setting up the sleek tablet computer. “I went to the Apple Store, too, and a girl there showed me a book 1½ inches thick on how to use one. I thought, ‘No way.’ So I decided to have her just show me what I needed to get going,” Ms Foster said. She has also enlisted the help of any younger person with tech savvy that she encounters, to show her a thing or two, and bit-by-bit, she is making progress on getting fully acquainted with her iPad.

“I play around with it and poke around for about half an hour every day. There are so many things available on it, with all of these apps,” she said. “My friends think it is just great that I have an iPad, but it’s a little frightening for a lot of them,” chuckled Ms Foster.

She is very pleased that the highly portable device will allow her to receive her e-mail. “I’ve always had some trouble or other with my computer, so the first thing Hans has done is clean out my computer and put my e-mail on my iPad. This will be so much better,” she said.

Along with e-mail, she looks forward to learning how to use the mapping app, watching the news, buying and reading books, and playing games. “Once I get it all set up and learn how to use it, I’ll probably spend too much time on it. That’s what happened when I got a computer,” she said.

Even as she embraces the newest trends in technology, Ms Foster maintains some reservation about the speed of progress. “Technology has had a huge effect on society. So much has moved along, so fast. Some of it is good, some of it is bad. I think there are tough decisions to make, especially for young people” she said. “I worry that we are losing the influence of family, because everyone is so immersed in technology.”

Nonetheless, the iPad is the most interesting of all technologies she has encountered in her lifetime, Ms Foster said. “Once I get it down pat, I can’t imagine all the things I will do. Maybe I’ll even go back to school online and get my BA in liberal arts,” she said. And if the iPad 2 does not live up to her expectations? “Well,” Ms Foster said, “I don’t think that will happen, but I guess Hans would get it after all.

“I love learning new things,” she said. “It’s good for my brain. It’s like going on the roller coaster — there’s a thrill in this for me, just to say, ‘I can do it.’”