The Internet opened to the public in 1991. My younger son was already playing computer games, having bought his first computer with money he earned as a Bottle Boy at the neighborhood market across the street from our house. He quickly moved from games he loaded from a cassette tape to exploring MUD rooms online through the Internet. My friend Scott introduced me to the Internet in 1994 and showed me how to talk with people through Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
My first computer was a 1994 “pizza box” Macintosh Performa. I walked into Computer City, looked around, pointed at a computer, and walked out carrying my treasure. It had 4MB RAM—four megs of RAM!—with a modem that whipped through the telephone lines at 1200 baud. I was cookin!
In
1994 there were no web browsers like Fire Fox or Chrome or Internet
Explorer. There were no search engines like GOOGLE. America On Line
(AOL) was not yet a public site but like other chat programs such as DELPHI, self
contained. In order to explore the ‘Net, we used early versions of
search engines like Archie and Gopher, which were not necessarily user
friendly, especially if you weren’t computer savvy. We learned code
like /nick pollyanna on the IRC program and moved around. I remember
the first time I forgot to use the proper code to send a text and the
phrase “You are not talking to anyone” popped up on my monitor screen.
I was so embarrassed that I shut the computer down immediately. Who was watching what I was doing? I hadn’t yet realized
that it was the computer that was watching me; I was alone in my
house.
And then it happened. I discovered channel #41plus. This was a group of people who were around my age hanging out on IRC chatting away. In the beginning the majority of the people on the channel’s were educators, engineers, and geeks. We had soooo much fun. I realized I could be as strong a woman as I was rather than allowing the men around me offline urging me to be needy and weak so they could take care of me. It was sad to watch women online later on to be those people, the image of a woman from the 50s. How sad, when we could be liberated from those chains and be who we were.
Discovering #41plus was perfect timing. I couldn’t wait to get home from work and start chatting. I had recently lost my best friend, moved away from my other close friends, and worked too many hours to get to know my colleagues very well. I was ripe and ready for Internet friends.
Even though we were from around the world, many of us would get together for a #41plus party. The majority of the time the parties were held at amsel’s in San Jose. Oh! pollyanna was visiting! Let’s have a party! Oh! Saline is visiting from Australia! Let’s have a party. And party we did. So much to talk about. Playing on the channel while we partied with channel people at amsel’s. San Jose. Dallas. Tucson. Phoenix. Kentucky. Have party, will play! I have had the privilege to have driven across the United States many times, meeting hundreds of my IRC #41plus friends. Dated a few. Brought one home.
We all had nicknames and that's what we called one another. It was interesting that when we moved away from IRC into other social media, we didn't know one another. On Facebook we have real names...who are you, we would ask? Hi! I'm "pollyanna." I'm "Lman." I'm "kammie." I'm "nolte." Not until THEN did we know with whom we were chatting :)
I do miss those carefree online24seven days laughing and chatting and private messaging with such a diverse group of people. But the friendships live on. When driving down I-5 I try to meet up with kam and Lman. Heading east, I try to visit whomever is on my route. I keep up with amsel and Camie and Citrox, with JimCat and Miranda and Moochie. So many more.Back in the early-mid 90s, there was nothing more exciting than to hear that modem squawk as it connected to the Internet on dial-up. Every time I heard that connect I would think, "A new adventure awaits!"
And so it goes.
peace~~~
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