Hello to the PIC List.  Here's my problem.  Any thoughts would be greatly
appreciated.

On a 16C55, I'd like to be able to distinguish between the first time the
chip powers up and every other time it awakes from sleep.

Only during the initial power up, I want to initialize some variables (used
to count an external event).  I do not want to re-initialize these
variables every time the unit awakes from sleep.  I should also say that
the circuit is designed similar to the one in AN528, but uses a 55 instead
of a 54.  So I am using a low on the MCLR pin to cause a reset and awake
the chip.

The STATUS register has a couple of bits, PD and TO, dealing in this area,
but I don't know if there is a logical combination that will give me what I
need.

If the 16C55 can't, is there another part that could?  If the 16C55 can't
using the STATUS reg, is there another simple way to solve this problem
that is 100% foolproof.  (I can envision checking a file register(s) to
either allow or not the variable initialization routine.  The problem I see
is that on power-on, the contents of that register(s) is undefined and
therefore could initially (1 out of 256) equal the value I would set it to,
which nullifies its use.  The odds improve by using multiple registers, 1
out of 65536 for 2 regs, 1 out of  16.7 million for 3 regs, etc.)

Another approach might be to add some latching hardware which would work,
but would add cost and require PCB space.