Arthur Weasley and a computer? :D
In all of his days volunteering at the library, Reggie Lister had never seen such an interesting character as the elderly man who had shown up precisely when the library opened and asked to use a ‘personal commuter’. He had red hair (rapidly turning white), a fuscia sports jacket, green corduroy slacks, and a tidy little tin lunchbox sporting dancing marigolds.
“Do you mean a ‘personal computer’, sir?”
“Perhaps! My daughter-in-law -- very smart girl, my wife and I are so pleased Ron chose her -- was telling me that you could look anything up on the ‘web’. Tell me, what exactly do the spiders do?”
Reggie blinked. “Uh, no, there are no spiders involved, we just call it that because the information is all interconnected, I guess. If you follow me, though, I can show you how to use a computer.”
The man looked slightly disappointed, but brightened once more as he thought of new questions. He kept up a steady chatter (introducing himself as Arthur Weasley) as Reggie led the way to the bank of computers on the fourth floor.
“Here you are, Mr. Weasley, just sit in that chair there while I boot the computer up.”
Concerned, Mr. Weasley pointed at his highly polished brown dress shoes. “Was I supposed to wear boots? The only pair I have are some old rain galoshes, but if they’ll do I can nip back home real quick and bring them.”
Reggie chuckled and shook his head. He was always amused at the connections the elderly made as they tried to fit new technology into their understanding.
“No, sir, ‘booting up’ just means I’m turning the computer on loading the operating sys -- never mind. It means I’m turning the computer on.”
Mr. Weasley nodded in relief, before turning to his lunchbox and withdrawing a small notebook and fountain pen. By the time Reggie had logged into the guest account, Mr. Weasley had written out notes for ‘web’ and ‘boot up’ as well as crossed out the ‘Commuter’ that headed the page and written ‘Computer’.
“Now, this here is a mouse. It controls the little white arrow on the screen -- see how it’s moving? Hover over something and click on the left button to select it.”
Looking utterly delighted, Mr. Weasley, after taking a brief moment to sketch and label a diagram for the mouse in his notebook, began playing with the mouse under Reggie’s supervision. Once he seemed to have that well in hand, they moved on to the keyboard (“Why, it’s just like a typewriter!”).
After about an hour of instruction in which Mr. Weasley crawled under the desk to look at the wires connected to the monitor and tower, asked a never-ending stream of questions, learned how to search on the internet, and accidentally inverted the display, Reggie had to step away to check other visitors in for computer use. As he left to help a rather irritated looking business woman, he noted with great amusement that Mr. Weasley was reading a page about the history of rubber ducks with intense concentration, meticulously copying the article down into his notebook.
Perhaps the next lesson would be in using the printer.