When I was a kid it seemed like everyone I knew got a computer. I wanted one so bad I couldn't contain myself. From about the sixth grade every birthday and every Christmas when they asked me what I wanted I answered simply that I wanted a computer. In eighth grade they bought me a typewriter.
Admittedly, it was a cool typewriter...
All of my friends had Commodore 64s or fancy new IBMs. They were playing Paper Boy and Kings Quest. I had a typewriter.
Finally my Junior year of high school, Christmas of 1993, my dad broke down and bought a computer for the family. It was beautiful. I caressed its putty colored exterior as we plugged in all of the components. Windows 3.1 sprung to life and it - was - magnificent.
I knew, I just *knew* I could use that thing to communicate with other people. I knew it had a modem. A 2400 baud one, to be exact. I called the only person I knew who had another computer with a modem who would know what to do... my best friend, Jenny.
She didn't really know what to do, either, at first. We dialed into each other's computers and typed away at each other... but we knew there could be more.
I don't know who discovered it first, but finally we found Screaming In Digital (SID). SID was a BBS back in the days before the World Wide Web. You could dial up and go into essentially a chat room where up to 6 people could be logged in at one time. I was instantly hooked.
I tied up our phone line constantly. I dreamed that my parents might get another phone line installed so I could be on 24/7. When SID was full, I had to let the computer auto-redial until someone disconnected and I would hastily run from across the house to the computer at the familiar sound of the modem connecting.
When someone called my house I was disconnected and had to start the process all over again. It was heart breaking.
Ever since that wonderful Christmas in 1993 I have all but lived at the computer. Going from SID, to my college AOL account, and finally venturing out on my own into the World Wide Web.
I still live here on the Internet, glad you've stopped by to visit. :)
To see more from the Sincerely 'Fro Me To You carnival, check out We are THAT Family!
16 comments:
I love that! Great post. I got my first one in 1990, but it took me years to get on the internet. Because I was afraid. I'm a nerd like that!
Yep, the good ol' days. How do you think I met my husband....met him back in 1991 on a BBS and married in 1996.
12 years later, here we are....both sitting in the den on our laptops. We scream geekdom.
Great photo.
My kids came across an old rotary phone & typewriter at a thrift shop with me. They had no idea what they were! Laughed my butt off. And then felt incredibly old!
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Love it! Those were the days!
I remember my parents got a computer with internet my senior year of high school. I can remember sitting down with my boyfriend's mom (now my mother in law) and having her teach me about this thing called the internet... my how time flies!!
Aack! I'd comment but my head exploded and all my brains fell out when you said that your Junior year of high school was 1993!
I started feeling faint when I saw those graphics, since my original Commodore 64 didn't even have graphics to speak of, but when I got to that next bit my head literally fell off my body. Gak! I feel so old LOL...
Wow, I didn't know you could chat that way back then!
I loved the computer as a girl, we had a very large apple computer in our class at school. But my family was the tv not computer type. So it wasn't until about 8 years ago that my husband and I got our very first computer, life has changed so much.
Wow! that is great.
I don't think I ever even realized about BBS though. I had trouble turning it on!
Great post...it took me until the late 90's to become computer literate...sort of..
ah ...ieo...uhm...I don't when I started?
But my family knows now it's easier to get ahold of me through IM or Email than even a phone line!
Boy they've come along way...!
Funny how things change. My daughter's high school requires that each student have a computer at home with internet access.
1993? You've got to be kidding me!!!
That was hilarious!
I still remember being in second grade the first time I ever saw a computer. I didn't own one until I was a freshman in college.
Didn't really learn how to use one until I was a junior in college.
Now I can't live without my laptop.
Wow, you were advanced! Or I was just really slow. In that same year I was a freshman in college and discovering what it meant to be connected to other computers for the first time. Can you say addiction? It's a wonder I got passing grades that year.
I about DIED when you said that you were strokin that putty colored masterpeice. HAHA! Great flashback!
My goodness how far we have come!!
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