Subject: [removed] Digest V2020 #69
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/18/2020 4:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
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                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2020 : Issue 69
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Charlie Summers                       [ Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed]; ]

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    Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2020 17:01:26 -0500
    From: Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Charlie Summers

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    I can't remember when I first met Charlie Summers, but it probably was
    at an FOTR convention many years ago. We became friends almost
    instantly. Both of our wives were Registered Nurses. We both had an
    interest in computers. And both interested in OTR.

    Over the years I found him not only a good friend, but someone I could
    turn to for all kinds of advise. Mostly questions about computer things,
    but his source of knowledge never ceased to amaze me. Would you believe
    that he had a working knowledge of plumbing? He even had a job where he
    ran a Zamboni.

    When I first heard the news of his death I was terribly shocked. Just
    two week earlier we were sending nightly emails on several subjects.
    Even now, a month later I find it hard to believe.

    Most of our correspondence was by email. Because of my schedule I find
    that I end up doing most of my email correspondence late at night and
    when I would see the time stamp on his emails to me I realized that
    could have almost chatted in real time, if I even knew how to do that.
    Charlie would.

    My current computer has over 800 emails from him going back to just
    2014. I'm sure my older computer that has Eudora has 2 or 3 times that
    many going back many more years.

    He walked me through a number of computer crashes to get me up and
    running faster than I would have ever been able to just connect to
    Dell's tech support. And if I dared to even use the word "tech support"
    I would receive an email explaining to me why I should not ever waste my
    time placing such a call. He would then explain exactly what my computer
    problem was and even attempted to try and teach me a lot of the
    technical know how as to what was actually going on when my computer
    [removed]  When I would then try and simplify his explanation into
    terms that I could grasp, I'd get an email starting with "(banging head
    against the wall) no that is not the same thing". And I tried not to
    give him too many headaches, so I tended to just read his very technical
    explanation and keep my simplified thoughts to myself.

    I have lost count to the number of times he helped me, from handling the
    video camera for me at FOTR when I needed to be in two places at the
    same time. Or all of the times he'd restore my locked up email program,
    Eudora, which he constantly told me to stop using. I even had an SD card
    crash and he was able to restore all of the files. I wanted so hard to
    be able to return the favor, but he knew so much about so much that when
    he once asked me my advise on what tripod he should buy, I was elated
    that I could finely help him. He never kept score. If I was trying to do
    some thing and just asked a question about the subject, he'd want to
    know what I was trying to do and then he would send me pages of
    information on how to do it.

    He told me once that it wasn't that he know a lot about a subject, but
    that he knew how to search for the information on the Internet. He said
    a lot of people do a search and then stop at the first page that gives
    them some [removed]  He would keep going down the list of pages until
    he found what he needed to know even if it was 15 or 20 pages deep. He
    was a very fast reader, so scanning dozens of pages was something he had
    no problem doing.

    One year I asked him to join me to going to the Government Video Expo in
    Washington, DC. It is aimed at government and private business video
    production people. It was a great time for both of us. At one point we
    were discussing some type of equipment and I was trying to convince
    Charlie that I was right about something and he was determined to prove
    me wrong and we were overheard by some one manning one of the booths and
    said Charlie and I should do a pod cast and tackle different subjects
    with the kind of banter we were just doing. And I was afraid to ask what
    a podcast was.

    To say I'm going to miss him is an [removed]  He challenged me to
    use precise technical terminology and I just looked forward to his email
    replies to see if I had previously written anything that was not going
    to cause him to bang his head against the wall.

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    End of [removed] Digest V2020 Issue #69
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