I Bet Her Name Was Bubba

It was my third year of college and I had just transferred Universities. I wanted extra spending money and the THING to do was to get a job on campus. The trick was though, was to get a job on campus that was -easy-. A job that allowed you to earn that paycheck all the while work on your studies at the same time. Oh yeah, and socialize with your friends when they popped by too.

My roomates and I heard that the library was THE place to get a great (and easy) campus job. So we applied there. They were lucky. I got a job, but wasn't as lucky...grumble.

They both got jobs in Periodicals. Easy peasy. They had to put all the magazines back where they belonged and other than that, they got to chit chat, read all the latest gossip (from all the current magazines at their fingertips), and study as need be...and what better place too than the quiet lower level of the library.

Me, I got hired to work in Interlibrary Loans. Yay. I actually had to work my tail off...gathering books and copying articles and scanning chapters and then the packaging and faxing of materials to all the various colleges in the area. And then accept in all the materials students on campus had ordered from other libraries and sort and sift and label and address so that they could come by and pick up what they needed....

Then there was the updating in the computer system etc etc etc so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, as I'd shuffle through Periodicals I'd see my roomates gabbing with friends or reading the latest People Magazine.

But I did meet some neat people in Interlibrary Loans that I worked with, one of them being a guy named Denny. He had a very English accent and was just attending college in the States and then probably returning home afterwards. He was spunky and lively and entertaining. Most of all though, he always came to work with some story to share.

He came dragging in to work one day with the darkest circles under his eyes, yet with a big cheshire cat grin on his face. Upon further investigation, I found out he had spent the entire night ~chatting on the internet~ with a girl.

"Chatting on the internet?? Huh?? What do you mean?" I asked.

He went on to explain to me about IRC and what it was and how you used it and how he had met the most amazing girl in his life... right there... on IRC and how he saw a picture of her and how he was sure she was a model and how he might be in love... all from one night's chat.

After telling him I think he needed some serious rest, I teased him about the possibility of this "dream girl" being a man in disguise and how SHE was probably named Bubba with some sort of rhaspy, deep voice. Needless to say, he found little humor in my jest and assured me - this.was.real.and.she.was.real. -

I knew nothing much about the internet at that time. I knew at the University I came from I could get an email account on campus for $10 a month, but I'd have to go into one particular building on the rather large State campus to check it on one of about 15 computers.

So this whole IRC, chatting, free email, etc that was at my finger tips at the new University was a novelty to me.

Denny showed me how to telnet in to IRC using a UNIX machine. It was exciting and fascinating...

And thus began my life in the WWW and the Internet...

One thing lead to another and the knowledge of how to do more and more with the Internet and computers evolved.

That is how I ended up on the Internet.

How did you end up on the Internet?

I wonder.