The Good Old Days

Story by canundrum69

This story is taken from real events, only Names were changed, even though no one here is Innocent.

The Events took place back in the early 1980's Just about when Dial-up Bulletin Board systems and

Chat Boards were starting to become popular. Meetings and Parties that gathered users together

were things we looked forward to with great anticipation.

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Ma Bell had just broken up and I was working for a private Interconnect Company (a company that supplied electronic phone systems to businesses at a lower cost than the new "Pacific Bell" or "GTE") and so it was no surprise when I went to visit a friend who still worked at Pac Bell, and found their stash of old computers being thrown out in the big bins behind the Central Office in Pasadena. Did I take one? Yeah I did. I came back that night with a Friend, (coincidentally he was also named Chuck). He was a real computer geek. I was just starting out, but he seemed to know it all. So we picked through the stock and found what looked like 2 systems that would work. Making Long Short, things worked well and we found the neccessary terminal software and dialer to be able to log into the new and upcoming "DYM-Net". Dial.Your.Match......There really is no hope for Geeks and Nerds you know.

A Few months passed and I just wasn't getting anywhere and wondered why. One friday after a particularly busy and annoying week of fixing stupid phone troubles from Santa Barbara to San Diego, I settled in for the evening and planned to watch that weeks installment of the "Z-Channel" yeah 1st gen cable and it only aired once a week and cost an arm and a leg. But it was State of the art, along wiht my 2 pound Alpha Numeric Pager, and my Motorola Trunked Radio Phone. But that kind of evening was not meant to be.

As if to rub my nose in the fact that I was not doing well with the new toy I had gotten, Chuck called and asked me to come over as quick as possible. When I asked what was wrong he just told me it was important and would explain when I got there. Silly me, I went.

The first words out of his mouth when I arrived were, "Dude! You gotta let me borrow your car!" HOLD ON! Rewind that one a bit, Borrow my Car? what was up with him? "You called me out here so that you could try and borrow my car and strand me at your place all night looking after your freak dog?" Chuck had an abnormally large dog that was not only clumsy, but if he didn't know you was downright mean. He was ironically called "Scooby" a Great Dane/Australian Shepard mix that stood about 6'8" when he stood on his hind legs with his tennis racket size paws on your shoulders.

"Look, I got a Date with a chick from DymNet and she wants to meet tonight at the Pool Hall". Ok that was straight forward enough. I asked, "Why did you think I would just give you the keys to my car? What if I get paged, its 20 miles from here to my shop, find another way, sorry". He looked as if I had just pummeled him with a 10 pound sledge hammer. "Fine then Drive me there and wait for me, just don't get in the way." Cool, Just what I needed. Well if nothing else I can play a few solo games and maybe find someone that wasn't out to make money to just shoot a few tables with.

Friday night in Pacoima, The Plush Pockets (Local Billard hall no longer there) was Packed! Finding a free table was as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. So we both sat at the bar, me waiting for a table and him waiting for a woman he had never seen, and who would more than certainly not show up. Come on, this isn't TV and people don't just wander out to meet strangers on a whim. Or so I thought.

Let me regress for just a monet and explain that back then, I had just turned 21 and was still mentally a High School Senior. Chuck wasn't much better and we both considered ourselves Gods Gift. We were both over 6 foot tall, the difference? I was built a little better than him, I had been on the school weight lifting team because I couldn't do any track or play Football or Baseball, etc. and Chuck was kind of scrawny and lanky being a sprinter on the track team.

he also had the look of someone that wore a pocket protector, and in fact he did. He worked for an Alarm Company as a DIspatcher and I made my way wearing a toolbelt and pulling cables through ceilings and basements.

Sitting at the bar, waiting, we just began checking out the women coming and going and wondering if any of them was this mysterious woman. The only thing he knew was that her name was Rachel and she had long black hair. Ok, so we lived in an area that was primarily Latino, you do the math. After about an hour of this I was gettign ready to just leave and he could stay or go, I didn't care anymore, I was bored, I was sweating being in a place packed with people on a summer night in a place with no A/C running.

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