The Good Old Days

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