Here is some memories and thoughts from an old timer that was known as Louie on local BBSes.
Some of my thoughts on bbsing...
I started to call bbses back in 1988 or there abouts. The first boards I called were Canisus College BBS (the ran by Rebo Man - Kevin Jarot) and the original Stairway to Heaven run by the infamous The Piper. Piper now works for Softbank Services Group doing weird things to people who buy Microsoft products.
But lets now segway to where I presently am in life. You see, it was all part of the journey of becoming a Computer Professional for a lot of us. Today, I work for White Directory (The Talking Phone Book). I am doing technical things there with lots of computer equipment and software. For some reason they trust me to do this. You see, when I started BBSing most people were either Computer Professionals or wanna-be CP's. Then, I was a wanna-be. Today, that has probably changed a bit.
Today I am told how much of a local fixture I was to WNY BBSing and how much of an old timer I am to bbsing. But that was not always true... There are several people who have been bbsing for a lot longer than myself. People like Ghost Rider, Rebo, The Piper, Merlin the Magician, Grim Reaper, The Wizard, Swashbuckler, John Hardballl, The Pillsbury Dough Boy, IBM Monk, Zot, and several others had been bbsing for years longer than myself.
The things I remember the best were the parties at Piper's place, BBS Picnics, and Wing Dings.
In the end there were about 25-28 official Wing Dings. I was at the first one though. At the first Wing Ding seven (7) people showed up. But it started on a BBS. Kingdom of Renkjavick... a lot of us started discussing chicken wings and how we could all east very hot Chicken Wings. Kingdom of Renkjavick was run by Eh ??? and it was one of the best boards in the History of WNY. Heck, some might say it was the best ever.
Anyway, we were all bragging about how many really hot wings we could all eat when Perseus mentioned this place called "Sals" in Depew which had suicidal wings that lived up to Doctor Kovorkians seal of approval. Well, when he said that we all "knew" we could east 20 of them. When Perseus added that anybody that could eat 20 of them got them for free... it was only a matter of minutes before we all bragged that every one of us could manage that feat. So, we set a time and date and went there.
Rebo, Gordon Sumner, John Hardball, Pillsbury Dough Boy, The Wizard, Perseus and myself... I managed to eat 8 of the suicidal wings that night. The most of any of us at that time. At the second Wing Ding Rebo did manage to eat 20 of them... a record that was to stand for years. I understand that somebody else managed to eat 20 of them at a much later date, but I don't remember who that was now.
The second Wing Ding was where things really started to get going for the series of events. That one had Killertrees and myself show up real early to find that Zot was already there. Several others like The Piper, Jamin'Joe, Eh ???, Pirate, Swashbuckler, Daarkhan, Ghost Rider, Rocks, Lady... and the original crew all attended... I think some others were there as well. But it was a fun time.
In the future, we had to move it to other locations because it was getting too big for the small place that Sals was. We moved it to Otto's on Union for a while where we got over 150 people to attend one of them, and a 125 or so at another of them... But we got tossed out of Otto's because of some people not being able to act like adults. Then we had some at The Other Runway by the airport and Hemmingway's downtown. Lastly, there were a few at the Park Place out by Riverside park.
150 people at one of the Wing Dings was great... I wonder if every that many people are left who call BBSes?
Well, I could write a lot more but I am getting tired.
-:Louie dreiss@usa.net