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