textfiles/bbs/bio

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<EFBFBD>  The Invention Factory  BBS will  soon  celebrate  it's  eleventh  year   <20>
<EFBFBD>  on-line.  I thought that some of our  BBS members  might be interested   <20>
<EFBFBD>  in how we began and what motivated Michael and I to start our BBS.       <20>
<EFBFBD>                                                                           <20>
<EFBFBD>  In 1981  I was a single mother  living in Long Beach,  Long Island and   <20>
<EFBFBD>  working as a waitress to support  myself and my nine year old daughter   <20>
<EFBFBD>  Sarah.   I met Michael  at a  party  given  by  a  friend of  mine and   <20>
<EFBFBD>  instantly knew  that I wanted to spend  the rest of my  life with him.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  The  psychic  part  of myself  recognized  him on an  intuitive level.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  Unfortunately he left the party before  I could tell him  that we were   <20>
<EFBFBD>  destined to be together.  Several months  went by  before I could work   <20>
<EFBFBD>  up the courage  to track him down  and call him.  I had never called a   <20>
<EFBFBD>  man before but I talked myself into it  by asking  myself, " What  are   <20>
<EFBFBD>  the worst things that could happen? "  One is that  he won't  remember   <20>
<EFBFBD>  me and two is  that  he'll ask me what my intentions are.  So I called   <20>
<EFBFBD>  him, and of course he didn't know who I was, he had no recollection of   <20>
<EFBFBD>  ever having met me and asked me what my intentions were in calling him.  <20>
<EFBFBD>  However,  we did have a great phone conversation and talked for hours.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  Just before I hung up  the phone I asked him if he  would like  to get   <20>
<EFBFBD>  together  sometime  and he said, "No, but I'll call you sometime."  We   <20>
<EFBFBD>  spoke  on the phone  for months before  arranging  a date.  After that   <20>
<EFBFBD>  first date we saw  each other every weekend.   Our first New Years Eve   <20>
<EFBFBD>  together that I didn't have to work and had child care for my daughter   <20>
<EFBFBD>  arranged I drove into  Manhattan early in the day  to be with Michael.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  Michael met me outside and  asked me to drive him uptown  to a friends   <20>
<EFBFBD>  house.  On the way he explained that his friend had agreed to lend him   <20>
<EFBFBD>  a  terminal for a  couple of days.  This was not a computer but a dumb   <20>
<EFBFBD>  terminal and Michael  was instantly  obsessed.  He sat in front of the   <20>
<EFBFBD>  terminal  all evening and I sat on the couch watching Dick Clarks Rock   <20>
<EFBFBD>  N Roll New Years party by myself.  As I watched the ball drop on Times   <20>
<EFBFBD>  Square I decided I had to see what the attraction was to this thing in   <20>
<EFBFBD>  the other room. I found Michael seated in front of the terminal with a   <20>
<EFBFBD>  glazed expression  trying to type  nonsense on the screen.  When I sat   <20>
<EFBFBD>  down to take a turn Michael was extremely impressed that I could type.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  But I still didn't get what he was so fascinated by. Michael explained   <20>
<EFBFBD>  to me that if you took this  terminal and plugged it into  a phone and   <20>
<EFBFBD>  called an information service you could find any information about any   <20>
<EFBFBD>  topic any time of the day or night.  You have no idea what those words   <20>
<EFBFBD>  meant to me. I've been an information junkie my whole life.  I had the   <20>
<EFBFBD>  Dewey  Decimal  System  memorized  by age twelve. I will read anything   <20>
<EFBFBD>  about anything. I am also one of the most gullible people in the whole   <20>
<EFBFBD>  world cause I believed him when he told me we just needed to get a few   <20>
<EFBFBD>  more things to be able to do this  really simply.  The next few months   <20>
<EFBFBD>  were devoted to research and  development; which computer  to buy  and   <20>
<EFBFBD>  learning to type.  By July of 1983 we had an IBM PC, a Hayes 1200 baud   <20>
<EFBFBD>  modem and  a subscription to Dialog which came with a 750 page manual.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  I'm just like  every one else.  I refused to read the manual.  Michael   <20>
<EFBFBD>  said that what we now needed was  software so he started  to call some   <20>
<EFBFBD>  BBS's and one of the first programs he downloaded turned out to be one   <20>
<EFBFBD>  a public domain bulletin board  program, RBBS.  He said he  thought he   <20>
<EFBFBD>  should install it and then he could really learn a lot  about computer   <20>
<EFBFBD>  telecommunications, and get all sorts of software for free.  We set up   <20>
<EFBFBD>  the BBS,  put our name on some BBS lists ( which were a lot smaller in   <20>
<EFBFBD>  those  days ) and  waited  for  the  modem to ring.  Whenever we heard   <20>
<EFBFBD>  someone  connecting  to the board  we'd run to the computer to see who   <20>
<EFBFBD>  was on-line and usually start typing to them.  We became a busy little   <20>
<EFBFBD>  board and when  Michael started  adding more memory,  more phone lines   <20>
<EFBFBD>  and more modems at an  alarming rate I gave him my ultimatum,  "Either   <20>
<EFBFBD>  make this thing support itself or give it up."  We had a core group of   <20>
<EFBFBD>  members who  said that they would  be willing to pay us for membership   <20>
<EFBFBD>  if we could guarantee  no busy signals.  So  that's  how it all began.   <20>
<EFBFBD>  I guess it could be a great story if I  could say that we've taken our   <20>
<EFBFBD>  hobby  and turned it  into a  business and become rich and famous. The   <20>
<EFBFBD>  truth is , we struggle along like most small businesses in America. We   <20>
<EFBFBD>  continue  to grow but not as  quickly as I would like.  Our family has   <20>
<EFBFBD>  grown to include two more children and I can't think of many other Mom   <20>
<EFBFBD>  and Pop operations that allow  us the flexibility to work when we want   <20>
<EFBFBD>  and spend time with our children as we want. I can't imagine going out   <20>
<EFBFBD>  to a  job and not seeing  my kids for  nine hours a day.  Every time I   <20>
<EFBFBD>  pick them up from school,  or go on class trips, or volunteer in their   <20>
<EFBFBD>  classrooms I feel pretty rich and extremely lucky.                       <20>
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