Internet Friends
I was hanging out with a good buddy of mine in Arizona during this past summer. Sam and I have been friends since before high school. He invited me to a family BBQ type thing while I was visiting him. It was really cool to meet more of his family. Plus any amount of time I get to hang out with kids is cool with me.
It was a fantastic afternoon of swimming, conversation, and family (not my own, but I got adopted for the day). Then Sam’s aunt asked me how we had met and all eyes seemed to descend upon small beth. Well, I never really had given it much thought before. I definitely had to stop myself from opening my mouth and blurting out, “The Internet!” Even though that’s the truth.
I met Sam in a CompuServe chat room. Way back in the day when it was all text based and cost like $5 a minute to dial in, 56k baby! The current stigma associated with friendships that start online definitely altered how I wanted to tell this story.
It must have been 8th grade. My girlfriend from down the street would come over and we’d dial into the servers. One day we met a boy! So we asked him where he lived. Shut up, this was before a/s/l. (When the kids started using that I felt old already!) Turns out he lived really nearby. I don’t really remember what we talked about except that we asked him for his phone number. AND HE GAVE IT TO US!!
We immediately disconnected and called him. Surprised the crap out of him too. He didn’t think we’d call. In hind sight this exchange was really stupid and potentially dangerous. But the internet was new and maybe people didn’t lie as much back then. Our first conversation was something like, “When’s your birthday?” “December 24.” “Oh, so you probably get gipped on Christmas gifts then huh?” “I’m Jewish.” HAHA, real sensitive, Beth. Thankfully he has a really great sense of humor.
I used to have Friday the 13th Parties way back when I was a wanna-be emo teenager (only we didn’t have emo, so I was more like depressed grunge). I of course invited him to the next party. I have no idea what he told his parents. “Hey mom & dad. Do you think I could go to this girl’s party? I met her online?” We got our parents on the phone and his mom talked to my mom, etc. On the day of the party his mom drove him over and chatted up my mom. And that was that. We dated for a week or something while we were in high school. I’m glad that we’re still friends. We really are better as friends.
After high school I moved to Pittsburgh and he joined the Air Force. Eventually he got stationed in England! Lucky bastard. He was in Ely, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. One day I got an email, his time there was up soon and I should come visit him. This was my chance to go to England and have a guide and a place to stay. So, I spent a week in the summer or 2007 exploring Cambridge and the surrounding area. He had his motorcycle there, the fancy Air Force and flown it over for him! It was fabulous. Amazing. Wonderful!
