ͻ
  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.                       
ͼ
