Mrs. Sallie West, Morganton,NC

“I figured if a third grader could use a computer, I could too,” said Sallie West, who after 92 years hasn’t lost her adventure for life. Mrs. West and her husband, Robert, are a delightful couple who have lived full lives, taking advantage of opportunities to travel and to learn.

“I figure, I’ve tried everything else. I might as well try that,” she said. “I couldn’t even imagine a computer when I was young. Why, I came from the horse and buggy days.” Recently she bought her first computer and began taking classes at the local community college. “I can’t understand why other people don’t try,” she says.

Sallie does more than try. Besides using the computer for word processing, e-mailing family and searching the internet, she has learned to trade stock online. “I’ve enjoyed it,” she says. “You can get on your PC and get stock reports. Before I buy one, I want to know what it looks like. So I get a report on it from somebody. If I think it looks pretty good. I go ahead and buy it. I’ve bought a stock and turned around and sold it the same day.” She laughs. “It’s kind of wild.”

“After I exercise, I sit down at the computer to work. I keep up with it. I see what my stock has done each day. It gives me something to do.” Something to do indeed. In April Mrs. West made about $35,000. “All my family was against it at first. They thought I was gonna lose my shirt, I think,” she laughs. “You can, you know.”

We talked about how things have changed since the Wests were married in 1935. “We’ve lived through a really wonderful period in history.” The Wests were traveling in Utah when they received news of the moon landing. They stopped the car and listened to the report on the radio. “I was staring at the moon,” Sallie said. “I never dreamed that anybody would make it to the moon. Imagine what you have ahead of you,” she says to me. “You will probably travel in space yourself, by the time you are my age.”

The Wests were interested in my cross-country trip, but they have had some exciting road trips of their own. In 1969 they quit their jobs, put their furniture in storage and drove the Alcan Highway in Alaska. They were on the road for 51 days putting over 9,000 miles on their RV. “We said if we were going to do it, we’d better go now. We’re not getting any younger.” That was 35 years ago!

When I grow up, I want to be like Sallie West.

See a video clip of Mrs. West's interview. (You will need Quicktime to view this video. Download Quicktime free.)

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