XX

Well, again I thought I had the world by the tail. A C=64, 1541 drive, (still using the TV as a monitor), but now things seem to move a little faster. Oh! What fun! Typing in new programs, spending hours and hours with my C=64.

I used my C=64 until one day a local department store, that was going out of business, had a 128 marked way down. Well! Talk about excitement! I don't think my feet hit the floor until I drove the 45 minutes home and connected everything up. The 128 lasted a couple years and in the closet went everything; I was thinking...'Someday I'll sell it all and get an IBM or Mac.'

As you can see, this never happened. The 128 and things were packed away for a few years, when one day I decided to get it out for the grandchildren. Once everything was connected, I was right back into it. Who would have thought? -G-

I needed an interface for my printer and that's when I found Herm. He sold me the interface and gave me a whole bunch of used disks. I was going thru them, formatting the ones that didn't interest me, when I came across one that had several term programs on it. Do I need to say more? That started the excitement all over again. I called Herm (Herm Drummond) to see if he had any modems for sale; he came up with *two* 300 bauds. Yup, that's right-300 baud. One for me and one for Sue, my sister, who by this time is also knee deep into the computer fun!!

At first we thought just connect to each other and we can talk and have fun, but that didn't work out because one of the modems didn't work. So, here we were, back at square one.

While playing around with the one modem that did work, I discovered Compuserve. I made the connection, joined and thought, 'This is too much!'I just couldn't believe there was another whole world out there. The excitement rose again when I discovered all we could do here on line. We just had, to find another modem for Sue!

Calls were made to anyone and everyone that we thought could be of some help to us. Nothing. Then Herm came across an Aprotec 1200 and we were back in business. (G)

Sue got on with her 300, and I my with my 1200, both of us still thinking all this is the greatest thing since 'McDonalds'. Needless to say, there was no stopping us now. Digging out all our old Compute and Run magazines, we began looking for online servers and BBS numbers. Most were dead ends, and the local providers here just laughed at us.

Back to the magazines again. We found Genie, but that was a no go. Then we found an ad for Delphi, complete with a number to call. 'What the heck,' I thought, 'I've tried everything else'... but if this doesn't work, back to the closet it all goes.

We dialed the number and we were put on hold for a short time; I remember thinking, 'Yeah right, they just *know* I have a commodore, and they're laughing their butts off.' Then a voice came on: "Hello, this is Ron, may I help you?" "I sure hope so, do you provide online services?" "Yes we do" "OK, next question. I have a commodore 128, can I get on line with it?" I was waiting for the out burst of laughter. Imagine my amazement when Ron said, "Well yes, we have a Commodore Forum." At this point I could hardly believe my ears. The next thing I remember is, "Hello, you still here?" "Yes sir, I just can't believe I finally found someone that supports the commodore."

After getting all the information from Ron, Sue and I were connected to Delphi and in the ComCom Conference, with a great bunch of folks like, Chuck, Susan, Joe, Jn, and Novan, and learning more and more each time we went on. We brought many, many problems which they helped us with; we had soon discovered that we couldn't e-mail or D/L. Soon after we joined we received our first REAL term program, from Novan. But....25 hours a month was no where *near* enough time for us; we used them up in just a few days. After several attempts to locate a local provider that would allow us to Telnet to Delphi, we were all set with our Content Plan. It seemed we were all set. Next came a new 1084S monitor, 1571 drives and Sue graduated to a 2400 baud modem and me? well, I have to be one jump ahead you know...I got a 14.4. Talk about kewl, *this* was it. (and we thought 300's were fast). Now, we had to get the rest of the family on; you would have thought we worked for Delphi. First came sister Donna; it wasn't to hard to convince her to join us (she's a traitor tho, she has an IBM ). Then Bridgette, using our old, hand me down 1200 baud modem. She was happy. I have even brought a few friends along, and I'm still working on a few more. I'm not really a 'BULLY' , just insistent. I just tell the truth: 'IT'S FUN IN HERE!' and the folks here are great....they haven't kicked us out yet! ;-)
Judy has been a member of Delphi since May 1st, 1997, and has had the direct responsibility for at least 5 people joining our Forum. She's a welcome part of the Commodore Forum family, and is a Conferencer here; Thanks, Judy! Keep up the good work!