Electricity: Ground?

[Jason Clinton]

   Hello all. I'm look at renting an older home in the Waldo area. My
   question for the EE's on the list is this: The electrical sockets in
   the house are of the older type that do not indicate polarity and do
   not have a plug for ground. I would like to know (showing my age,
   here) what happens if I plug in a surge protector? What sort of risks
   am I running plugging my serveral thousands of dollars worth of
   electronics in to these things? From poking around in the basement, tt
   appears that a three wire electrical wire was run to some of the
   sockets in the house. If ground runs in to the socket, does that mean
   that I can get ground from an adapter that attaches to the mounting
   screw? The land lady said the house's electrical was redone in '91 and
   passed inspection then... I'm not sure if that tells me anything
   useful or not (grandfather clauses?).