The first time my mother used a mouse was in 1989. She called me on the phone and said "the mouse is not working". - What do you mean it's not working, does it

The first time my mother used a mouse was in 1989. She called me on the phone and said "the mouse is not working". - What do you mean it's not working, does it move on the screen or not? - Well, it moves but just a little. - ??? Tell me more?!? - When I do big movements it moves a little, but when I do small movements it doesn't move at all. I can't get it to cross the screen, even with momentum. It took me a while to understand she was moving the mouse in the air; in those times mice had a ball that would indeed register movement if you shook the object hard enough. This was fun and all, but in the end my mother learned to use computers and is now very good at it.