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Saratoga Sampler
Mac McMillan is Saratoga's Silicon Santa
By Mary Ann Cook
COMPUTER GURU: Saratogan Mac McMillan is helping local senior citizens join the 21st century. He repairs and recycles old computers, so seniors and individuals at charitable organizations can learn to use them. That way, they don't have to spend money on a computer until they are comfortable using one (or if they decide computers aren't for them, despite the conveniences of email and the Internet).
McMillan worked on computers when they were mammoth; he was an IBM employee for 28 years until he retired in 1975. In retirement, he and his wife, Georgana, traveled the whole country for some five years, working as volunteers at bible colleges and all denominations of churches. For a while, they were associated with the group called Roving Volunteers in Christ's Service.
McMillan helped to remodel buildings and fix office machines or anything else that needed repair. Computers weren't part of his life then. "I had no need for a computer," he said. Then the McMillans came back to Saratoga, bought a fixer upper and began to, yes, fix it up.
Mrs. McMillan developed cancer and died in 1988. A few years later, McMillan married a woman he had met when both attended a Hospice of the Valley grief group. The current Mrs. McMillan is Lee, and before they were married, he fixed her computer.
"I think that's why she married me," he says. More recently, his granddaughter's school in Willow Creek needed computers. So he sent out a call for old computers and started rehabilitating them. And that's what activated the computer repair/rebuilding.
In the past nine months, McMillan estimates he's built or rebuilt some 25 or 30 computers for people. Most of these recycles answer requests from seniors, but sometimes they go to nonprofits, such as HOPE Rehabiliation Services, that teach computer skills.
McMillan is active in the Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council, and a notice Mary Richards put in the Senior Center's newsletter brought a deluge of old computers that the wizard could repair or use for parts. For a while, the notice had to be pulled because he was so overwhelmed with requests.
But now he's caught up and the notice appears again. His number is 408.867.3647. Guess he could be called Saratoga's Silicon Santa, considering all the people he's helped make computer literate. "It's quite a challenge, keeps my brain working," he says.
Bear in mind there are no manuals or other instructions for what he does. McMillan, 82, doesn't stop at computer work, either: He helps with maintenance at Saratoga Federated Church. Another nugget: He is a Pearl Harbor survivor who served as a radio/radar technician in the U.S. Air Force and in the India/Burma/China theater.
Addendum: McMillan's son, Jerry McMillan, has a monthly standing gig at Blue Rock Shoot. He's the Irish fiddler in the group called Celtic Heart. Jerry graduated from Saratoga High School in '71; older sister Nancy Moore of Willow Creek some five years earlier.
THEY'RE NUMBER ONE: The Pop Warner Cheerleaders are posting a winning tournament season, even qualifying to compete in the national championship. So far, the Tiger Team has taken first place in three events--the Invitational Championship, Conference Championship and Regional Championship tournaments.
These successes qualified the team to compete in the national competition in Orlando, Fla. There are 43 girls on the Pee Wee team, ages 8 to 11, providing football and cheer for children in Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno and Campbell.
The head coach is Holly Rodriguez, and the team business manager is Patsy Mercado. This is the first time the Pop Warner Cheer team has advanced to the finals. They're back by now, but at press time we didn't know the results. We'll keep you posted later on how they fared in Florida.
OVERSIZED VEGETABLES: Maryln Mori's paintings of vegetables hung at the 29 E. Main restaurant in Los Gatos in November and at Herbivore on Valencia Street in San Francisco. What better pairing than a vegetarian restaurant and the larger-than-life vegetables that Mori creates?
One of the Saratoga artist's trademarks is the fact that her vegetables appear to be sliding off the canvas, or caught mid-motion, so that her version of a still life becomes a not-so-still life. Another hallmark is her witty use of titles. "Move Over, Rover," for example, shows a row of eggplants, with the middle ones squashed.
SIZZLING SENIORS: The Sizzling Seniors, led by Saratogan Bev Myers, have a full schedule helping celebrate the holidays at schools and nursing facilities during this time of year. They appeared in the Los Gatos Children's Christmas and Holiday Parade early this month and at the Lincoln Glen Nursing Facility at Curtner and Foxworthy this week.
Another show was for Guardian Rehabilitation in Los Gatos. The Sizzlers are a dance group that is an outgrowth of Myers' aerobics classes in Los Gatos and Santa Clara.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
