Remember the sound dial up internet would make as it connected?
Daniel and I are watching Generation 56K. It is currently available on Netflix and is set in 1998 Naples, Italy.
Hearing that old dial up tone brought up memories of the time Erich (my now-ex-husband) ran up over $3,500 in long-distance tolls over a three month period in 1993.
In 1993 I only made $12,000 annually as an E-3 in the Air Force. He worked sporadically (as in, he could not keep a job).
You do not have to be a mathematician- or an accountant- to quickly realize $3,500 was four months take-home pay.
We were stationed at Whiteman AFB, which is in KnobNoster, MO (I mention that only because I love the name of that town lol). Basically the middle of the mid-west. And not close enough for many of the dial-up numbers to be local.
I cannot remember my solution to that problem. It was pre-cell phones, so it was not like I could have the telephone permanently disconnected. And my family was in New York so blocking long distance was not an option. I must have done something because we never had those outrageous bills again…
If you understand or are learning Italian, or if you do not mind subtitles or dubbing, this is a cute show and a fun trip down memory lane. Daniel did not have internet before coming to the USA so he cannot understand some of the things we experienced as the first youth growing up with the internet (or even pre-internet), but he has been here long enough to remember dial up.
For example, when I was 15/16 I was dating a boy whose parents had the internet. I remember him showing me how he could send a question out into the ether and eventually a response would come back. I told him that was stupid and would never catch on. After all, I could go to the library and have the answer in less than an hour! How wrong I was!
In my defense, this was pre “www.”…
I also took a college-level computer course in my senior year of high school and I joined the Air Force as a computer programmer, so it was not like I thought computers themselves were stupid…
Have I redeemed myself yet?
What are your earliest memories of computers and the internet?