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