If you remember from my last blog post, the AnnTheGran web site got its name from my AOL sign-in. I promised to tell you the story of how annthegran became my AOL sign-in. Like most stories like this it’s pretty simple and fairly silly.

The year was 1994. My daughter, son-in-law and three week old grandson moved to Orlando from Louisville and were staying with Bill and me until they could find a place of their own. At the time I was already day-caring our two and three year-old grandchildren and now the baby was added to the group while his parents were at work. In addition to that wonderful baby boy the kids brought along their computer, which was set up in my sewing room.  I was a little shy about using the computer and never wanted to do it if there were anyone looking over my shoulder. But my Son-in-law showed me a game called JezzBall that I really liked. I needed to pick out a name for posting my scores. His was “Eat my dust.” Since my name was Ann and I was taking care of the three grandchildren I named myself “AnnTheGran.”

Several months passed. The kids moved out after Christmas and bought a new computer. They gave me the old one as a belated Christmas gift. I was delighted. Soon after, my son-in-law came over to get me hooked up to the wonderful and mysterious Internet. AOL wanted to name me anncobb129 or something and every combination of my name or initials was rejected. Finally I said, “AnnTheGran has 10 letters. Try that.” Well, you know that one worked.

While I was trying to remember the name of that game I Googled “Old PC games” and there it was. A free downloadable version was available, but it didn’t want to work on my Windows 7 computer. I did find a version that would work on my phone, though, but I still haven’t been able to get past level one.

I also promised to tell you something about the early days of the Design Exchange. First I didn’t know how to make separate zip files for downloading. Whenever I received new designs I added them to the original zip file. If anyone wanted the new designs they had to re-download. Eventually I figured out how to post pictures with a hyperlink for downloading. This was 1996. Scanners cost thousands and color printers cost hundreds. I did have a little device for scanning photos. I can’t remember what it was called, Easy Photo or some such thing. My work around to get pictures of the designs on the web site was to stitch them out and paste four on a sheet of paper. I took that to Kinkos and they made me a color scan for two dollars. I would cut that up into the original four designs and those would fit into the photo scanner. I then punched holes in the paper with the stitched out designs and put them in a notebook. I have that notebook somewhere; I’m sure of it.

What would you like to hear from me? Let me know so I can keep you reading.

Until next time,
Ann (TheGran)