🚀 go-pugleaf

I must be stupid or it can not be done.  I have develop several hundred lines
of KORN shell scripts and I have been able to do everthing I wanted to.  The one 
thing I have not figured out is variable substitution.

 I have a global variable named  ASCOM.
 ASCOM=/home/aisserver1/people/946753
  The following is the script which reads from standard input the variable
dirnam.  Then it test to see if the the contents of dirnam is a directory.  If I
enter the full file name manually it works fine, however if I use $ASCOM it does
not work.  Instead of substituting the value of $dirname it uses $ASCOM.  If the
value of dirnam comes from an input parameter $1 it evalutes the content of $1
proprely.  How do I get dirnam to contain the value of $ASCOM not to contain the
charaters '$ASCOM'   ????? 

*********************************************************************************
 read  dirnam
 if [[ -d $dirnam ]]
      then 
      print $dirnam' to be scanned'
   else
      print $dirnam' not found'
   fi
*********************************************************************************

 I have tried:
 read  "dirnam"

 dirn=$echo($dirnam)
 if [[ -d $dirn ]]

 Thankyou for any help.  Seriously confused and stupified
                         Arnold Weinstein
                         Computer Scientist
                         L.L.N.L