Alma Morgan appeared perplexed as her game of computer Solitaire hit a snag. Maurice Kerr sensed her angst and pulled up a chair.

To move those digital playing cards from one stack to another, "you can click and drag, or double click" the mouse, Kerr said.

In moments, the problem was solved, and Morgan, 84, of Salina, continued her game.

The computer "is real nice," she said, "but it makes me feel pretty dumb."

Kerr was quick to console, assuring his student in the Salina Senior Center computer lab that folks are there to learn the technology at their own pace, regardless of how rapid those computers are changing.

Morgan said she is new to computers, but her love of typing and a need to keep her brain exercised since a recent surgery brought her to the lab on the third floor of the senior center, 245 N. Ninth.

"It's helping, but I have to work at it," Morgan said. "I have to keep training my brain to keep it alert."

She is embedded in a demographic that either embraces those electronic gadgets or shuns them.

"In the age 70-plus group, you've got people who say, 'I don't want to do it. I've lived 75 years without it, and I don't see any reason to start,' " said Tom Mulhern, director of the Saline County Commission on Aging.

"Then you've got other people the same age who are adopting and using the same technology," he said.

That split is evident more than in any other age group, Mulhern said.

"If you're in your 20s or 30s and say, 'I don't want to use a computer,' that would be socially unacceptable, not to mention career unacceptable," he said. "Technology is permeating every aspect of our lives, for better or worse."

Morgan's formative years occurred long before computers. She's interested in using a computer for enjoyment, such as playing games, and is not interested in linking up with the world.

"I'm not going to get into the e-mail," Morgan said.

That's just fine with Kerr, 63, an electrical engineer by trade. The owner of The Computer Helper, offering in-home help for beginning computer users, volunteers at the senior center.

The computer lab, which is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday -- Kerr is available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. -- can attract many seniors or just one.

On Jan. 27, when Morgan visited, the senior center had issues with its Internet service. She was the only pupil.

"We're trying to orient people to new ideas that they may be comfortable with," Kerr said. "If they run into some problems or questions, I try to point them to the answer."

Most aren't interested in learning every aspect of the technology, he said, just certain ones. Facebook commanded interest last year, and before that, it was e-mail, which endures.

"Senior citizens tend not to use all of the newfangled appliances that the younger generation does. Each appliance has a larger learning curve," Kerr said. "Some seniors don't even want to attempt it."

Never too old

Being older doesn't mean you can't learn, said Kathy Unruh, a loan review analyst at Sunflower Bank, 3025 Cortland Circle.

She was amazed at the proof in her Quinter classroom in 2002, while teaching an introductory computer class to a group of elderly students.

In walked Waldo McBurney, who was 100 at the time.

"Funny thing was, he didn't need an introductory class because he was already using a computer for e-mail, Internet browsing and letter writing," Unruh said.

At the time, she was in her early 50s and working as a computer and business teacher at Quinter High School.

Unruh presented lessons on such things as researching on the Internet and planning trips, writing letters or e-mails to elected officials, and playing games.

McBurney already had done all of the above.

He quickly moved from student to teaching assistant.

"Waldo ended up helping me with some of the 70-plus-year-olds who had never touched computers before. He was such a delightful student and helper," Unruh said. "He had a ball."

McBurney, who won fame as a senior athlete, author and Quinter businessman -- named America's oldest worker in 2006 by Washington-based America Works -- died in 2009, at 106.

He left Unruh with the attitude that you can embrace technology at any age.

Overcoming fear is a key hurdle, she said.

"I think older folks are afraid of putting something down and losing control of it," she said. "When they enter it into the computer, the computer has control."

Those fears were cemented early on when "computers would lose everything," said Unruh, now 59.

Time, software improvements and experience have eased some of those fears, Kerr said.

When computers became part of the mainstream in the 1990s, he said, the "old school" senior citizens had already retired.

"They hadn't run across using a computer," he said.

A new group of seniors -- rookie elderly, if you will -- have a different mindset.

"Now we're seeing people who used computers at the workplace," Kerr said. "They're less apprehensive on using the computer."

Learning for each other

Technology brought a sense of mutual amazement to Tom Rupp and Bob Brown.

When Rupp sold his business, Floor Perfect, to Brown in September and it was moved from 522 N. Ninth to 1000 W. Elm, Rupp, 76, agreed to stay on for a year to teach Brown the business.

As it has turned out, each is both a student and a teacher.

"All the things I have done in 35 years in business, I did by hand. When I wrote proposals, I did it in long hand," Rupp said.

He used a cell phone to stay connected with customers but never a computer.

"I'm an absolute technical illiterate," Rupp said.

All of that changed when Brown and his vice president of operations, Chris Comeau, took over last fall. Rupp saw that technology added speed and efficiency to the floor-covering business.

"They're doing in 30 minutes what it used to take me three or four hours to do," Rupp explained. "We'll go out and measure a job. Chris and Bob will have a bid figured and e-mailed to the customer before we leave the job site."

Brown and Comeau can provide a "sharp quote" to customers in a relatively short time, Brown said. Inventory, bids, invoicing and other traditional bookkeeping functions are kept on computer and can be accessed lightning fast.

"We're out of town a lot, and we need to know what we've got in inventory. We can get it on our cell phones," Brown said.

He has hired Marcy Baker to run the computers in the home office.

Rupp's technology for decades amounted to a small calculator and a paper tablet.

"He did everything in his head, put his whole life into it," Brown said. "We've taken his very successful process and streamlined it to where we can do it in minutes, or hours at the longest."

While Floor Perfect has made the transition to speed and efficiency, Rupp still is priceless to the business.

"Tom's method had a high degree of charm and personal touch. He's got beautiful longhand (penmanship). People appreciate that," Brown said. "Our bids are all printed on computers and not that personal, so we have to rely on our splendid personalities. I say that tongue-in-cheek, but we try."

n Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by e-mail at tunruh@salina.com.