43 thoughts on “Circa 1994: What is the internet, anyway?!?”
Wow…I remember seeing AOL commercials that had people sending flowers and booking hot air balloon rides, saying that with the internet you could do all this from the comfort of your home. Typing in the first computer lab at school on the black screen with the orange robotic font. Times have definitely changed.
Oh my gosh, I almost added that when we finally had computers in class, the treat for doing your work was playing Oregon Trail. Apparently, it’s still around. Crazy!
Oh.my.gosh. I would be so sucked in were I to start playing that game. I’d row the day away in my little canoe, dodging those boulders in the water. I also noticed Carmen Sandiego premiers today, when did the nineties become cool again?!
Is it “at” or “around?” Isn’t that funny?? And those were reasonable questions for that time. Nobody had any clue what we were about to be plugged in to.
I remember when my son had his VIC 20 and Commodore 64 – that was top of the line stuff! He designed his first auto dial program when he was 12, back in 1early 1980′s!
Mandy, “before the internet” is when mama and I me – 1963. I introduced myself to her via a letter – no long distance phone (I was in Italy), no email, no internet. We wrote over 300 letters each – before we met face to face!!
A friend sent me this cute picture and address of this college chick and we started writing. We finally met in October of 1963. 45 days later we were engaged. A week after we were engaged I went back overseas – we wrote another 500 letters before we saw each other again – March 1965. Were married July 10, 1965 – 45 years ago. Still write love notes on occasion. She is my best friend Mandy.
I’m sitting here at my desk with tears in my eyes Papa. What a love story the two of you have. No one can argue with true love after hearing that!!!
Have you ever written any/all of this down? I know your fingers don’t type as fast as they used to, but it’s a story worth hearing. I hope you and Mama have an amazing day today.
Mandy – there was a down side to those 800 plus letters I wrote to mama before we were married. I made some ‘promises” in those letters. She still can pull those out every once in awhile and remind me!
I have not written it down but have shared it with many a people. The last letter I wrote her was the kicker though – heh heh! Papa at his worst.
I was due to come home the end of May and got a 90 day early release date – got home March 1st. I was going to surprise her and not tell her – but decided I had better. So the week before I came home I wrote my last letter. It started like this,
“Dearest Judy, You may need to sit down to read this letter. I am sorry but this is the last letter I plan to write you. Do not bother to write me any more letters. I am serious. Sorry, it is not my intent to hurt you – but wanted to let you know …” (Mandy, I did 2 pages of this! heh heh)
at the end I said, “by the way, by the time you get this letter, I will be on my way home. They have given me an early out! I love you very much – see you in a couple of days!
All my love,
Jim”
She said she screamed! Her mother came running to see what was wrong! I was a stinker! eh?
Oh dear! That would take to long! Why don’t we all meet for lunch at Mandy’s place and I will bring mama and we will share our story!!
I’ll have the video camera ready for it!!
Sounds good to me! Or you could just mail me all of your letters and I’ll publish them for ya .
I can’t believe this! You’re lucky she didn’t kill you when she saw you. I can think of nothing meaner than to put her through all that torture before getting to what you’re really trying to say! I’m sure you’ve learned better since then, though.
I’m sorry to bust in on this, but that’s an amazing story! It reminds me of my Granny telling me the story of her running away to get married in a preacher’s living room, then driving down the road a mile to get gas and hearing on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He left the next day, and until the war was over, their marriage was through letters. I’m so in awe of your love story, thanks for sharing!
Kendra, we have a similar story. Judy and I got engaged on Saturday, November 23, 1963. We almost had to postpone our engagement.
I lived in northern Michigan at the time and was home on leave from the USAF. Judy lived 150 miles south of there. My plan was to drive down on Friday evening to see her. Friday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room watching television when the bulletin came out – “John F. Kennedy, President has been shot in Dallas”. I waited until the next day to go see her, expecting the USAF to cancel my leave and immediately have to report to my next station. Fortunately, my leave did not get canceled, and on November 23, 1963 I asked the prettiest farm girl I had ever met to marry me. One life had ended during that 24 hours changing the world, another life was heading down a new road of excitement. Your life can change either way during the next 24 hours – how are your choices going this very moment? Make them right. PLEASE ??
How inspiring, Papa. Your story is most definently a call to always be mindful that each moment is a gift. It’s up to us to view each day as an opportunity to steer our lives in the direction we want it to go. I appreciate your story, and your willingness to share:)
My first IT job was a contract for DARPA in 1983, where I got my first email address. So, I got a chuckle at this back in circa 94. And I was the guy trying to explain the network-of-computers thingy to several blank stares too… People would look at me like I was crazy… “Wait, you send EEEmails to your coworkers? Why?”
I remember senior management would have their Admins print their emails in the morning and stack them in their physical inbox so that they could read them when they got into work.
You had an email in 1983? That’s amazing. Wayyyy before it became mainstream.
And the thing about printing them out to read them? funny! I wonder how much of that kind of thing we still do today and we don’t even think about it. Let technology work FOR us, not against us.
This was great. So funny to see how the internet has grown some much!
To answer your question:
That was the year I was born so I never even thought of having a convo about the internet.
Good point! But I’m 32. I remember when ONE computer was the size of a bedroom. My MacBook can do more than that room-filling computer. Can you believe that?
I still don’t get the whole Al Gore thing. I mean, I know he said he “invented” the internet with someone else… But, I’m not sure how all that went down.
Lots of political mumbo jumbo.
Gore was kinda clumsy when he made the statement, but in a legislative and economic point of view, he had fostered initiatives that gave us what we know as the internet. ……I know I know….way too much meaningless info…I apologize .
Not meaningless at all. I’ve always suspected that he was referring to ideation and influence of the development… It’s just become a household internet joke. You confirmed my suspicions!
Did you know that myself & 3 friends started what – at least I hear – was the 2nd Christian magazine on the World Wide Web back in early ’92? Not to delve into the fact that operating it flunked 2 of us (not I!) out of college, I’ll just say that I never said “What is the internet, anyway?” We were on the front lines! I do sure wish that zine was still online, however.
p.s. – the first edition of the magazine didn’t REALLY have Graphics, in the sense that we think of them today – more like large blocks of color with awful type-font between them… oh, the good ‘ole days!
Wow…I remember seeing AOL commercials that had people sending flowers and booking hot air balloon rides, saying that with the internet you could do all this from the comfort of your home. Typing in the first computer lab at school on the black screen with the orange robotic font. Times have definitely changed.
Oh those were the days. I remember when Oregon Trail was the most happening thing on the monitor!
Oh my gosh, I almost added that when we finally had computers in class, the treat for doing your work was playing Oregon Trail. Apparently, it’s still around. Crazy!
You’re not gonna believe this: http://on.mash.to/i3yzOx
Oh.my.gosh. I would be so sucked in were I to start playing that game. I’d row the day away in my little canoe, dodging those boulders in the water. I also noticed Carmen Sandiego premiers today, when did the nineties become cool again?!
Hey, yeah. Um, speaking of which…is it possible now to actually record things on a CD…?
“You don’t need a phone line to use the Internet?”
“No…”
OMG this is hilarious…. “the a with the ring around it …. ‘around’?”
I’m dying here….
Is it “at” or “around?” Isn’t that funny?? And those were reasonable questions for that time. Nobody had any clue what we were about to be plugged in to.
I remember when my son had his VIC 20 and Commodore 64 – that was top of the line stuff! He designed his first auto dial program when he was 12, back in 1early 1980′s!
Wow Papa! And here you are typing away.
Oh I bet you could tell some “before the internet” stories for us!
Mandy, “before the internet” is when mama and I me – 1963. I introduced myself to her via a letter – no long distance phone (I was in Italy), no email, no internet. We wrote over 300 letters each – before we met face to face!!
no way!!! oh wow how romantic!!! what connected you two — to even be penpals?
A friend sent me this cute picture and address of this college chick and we started writing. We finally met in October of 1963. 45 days later we were engaged. A week after we were engaged I went back overseas – we wrote another 500 letters before we saw each other again – March 1965. Were married July 10, 1965 – 45 years ago. Still write love notes on occasion. She is my best friend Mandy.
I’m sitting here at my desk with tears in my eyes Papa. What a love story the two of you have.
No one can argue with true love after hearing that!!!
Have you ever written any/all of this down? I know your fingers don’t type as fast as they used to, but it’s a story worth hearing. I hope you and Mama have an amazing day today.
Mandy – there was a down side to those 800 plus letters I wrote to mama before we were married. I made some ‘promises” in those letters. She still can pull those out every once in awhile and remind me!
I have not written it down but have shared it with many a people. The last letter I wrote her was the kicker though – heh heh! Papa at his worst.
I was due to come home the end of May and got a 90 day early release date – got home March 1st. I was going to surprise her and not tell her – but decided I had better. So the week before I came home I wrote my last letter. It started like this,
“Dearest Judy, You may need to sit down to read this letter. I am sorry but this is the last letter I plan to write you. Do not bother to write me any more letters. I am serious. Sorry, it is not my intent to hurt you – but wanted to let you know …” (Mandy, I did 2 pages of this! heh heh)
at the end I said, “by the way, by the time you get this letter, I will be on my way home. They have given me an early out! I love you very much – see you in a couple of days!
All my love,
Jim”
She said she screamed! Her mother came running to see what was wrong! I was a stinker! eh?
Lemme just say I’ve sat here, reading these posts, and would welcome the “complete version”. Great story and you have a very unique way of telling it.
I AGREE!!
Reminds me of The Notebook….but better!
Papa, type all this out! We want to read the nitty gritty!
Love you!
Oh dear! That would take to long! Why don’t we all meet for lunch at Mandy’s place and I will bring mama and we will share our story!!
I’ll have the video camera ready for it!!
Sounds good to me! Or you could just mail me all of your letters and I’ll publish them for ya
.
I can’t believe this! You’re lucky she didn’t kill you when she saw you. I can think of nothing meaner than to put her through all that torture before getting to what you’re really trying to say! I’m sure you’ve learned better since then, though.
I’m sorry to bust in on this, but that’s an amazing story! It reminds me of my Granny telling me the story of her running away to get married in a preacher’s living room, then driving down the road a mile to get gas and hearing on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He left the next day, and until the war was over, their marriage was through letters. I’m so in awe of your love story, thanks for sharing!
Feel free to bust in. We’re one big happy internet community around here, Kendra.
Kendra, we have a similar story. Judy and I got engaged on Saturday, November 23, 1963. We almost had to postpone our engagement.
I lived in northern Michigan at the time and was home on leave from the USAF. Judy lived 150 miles south of there. My plan was to drive down on Friday evening to see her. Friday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room watching television when the bulletin came out – “John F. Kennedy, President has been shot in Dallas”. I waited until the next day to go see her, expecting the USAF to cancel my leave and immediately have to report to my next station. Fortunately, my leave did not get canceled, and on November 23, 1963 I asked the prettiest farm girl I had ever met to marry me. One life had ended during that 24 hours changing the world, another life was heading down a new road of excitement. Your life can change either way during the next 24 hours – how are your choices going this very moment? Make them right. PLEASE ??
How inspiring, Papa. Your story is most definently a call to always be mindful that each moment is a gift. It’s up to us to view each day as an opportunity to steer our lives in the direction we want it to go. I appreciate your story, and your willingness to share:)
My first IT job was a contract for DARPA in 1983, where I got my first email address. So, I got a chuckle at this back in circa 94. And I was the guy trying to explain the network-of-computers thingy to several blank stares too… People would look at me like I was crazy… “Wait, you send EEEmails to your coworkers? Why?”
I remember senior management would have their Admins print their emails in the morning and stack them in their physical inbox so that they could read them when they got into work.
You had an email in 1983? That’s amazing. Wayyyy before it became mainstream.
And the thing about printing them out to read them? funny! I wonder how much of that kind of thing we still do today and we don’t even think about it. Let technology work FOR us, not against us.
This was great. So funny to see how the internet has grown some much!
To answer your question:
That was the year I was born so I never even thought of having a convo about the internet.
Good point! But I’m 32. I remember when ONE computer was the size of a bedroom. My MacBook can do more than that room-filling computer. Can you believe that?
That is absolutely crazy.
When I hit my 30s it makes me wonder what computers will even look like. They will probably be pocket size!
ever heard of the iPhone?
hahahahaha! Seriously!
Pingback: Tweets that mention Circa 1994: What is the internet, anyway?!? | mandythompson.com -- Topsy.com
Dude, Al Gore and I invented the internet!
I still don’t get the whole Al Gore thing. I mean, I know he said he “invented” the internet with someone else… But, I’m not sure how all that went down.
Lots of political mumbo jumbo.
……I know I know….way too much meaningless info…I apologize 
.
Gore was kinda clumsy when he made the statement, but in a legislative and economic point of view, he had fostered initiatives that gave us what we know as the internet.
Not meaningless at all. I’ve always suspected that he was referring to ideation and influence of the development… It’s just become a household internet joke. You confirmed my suspicions!
that. is. hilarious.
i swear i come across people who still talk like that.
I take it you’ve met my grandparents.
Did you know that myself & 3 friends started what – at least I hear – was the 2nd Christian magazine on the World Wide Web back in early ’92? Not to delve into the fact that operating it flunked 2 of us (not I!) out of college, I’ll just say that I never said “What is the internet, anyway?” We were on the front lines! I do sure wish that zine was still online, however.
p.s. – the first edition of the magazine didn’t REALLY have Graphics, in the sense that we think of them today – more like large blocks of color with awful type-font between them… oh, the good ‘ole days!
You’re always ahead of the pack!