What is your earliest Internet memory?

[tapu]

When I was an undergraduate at the University of California in the early 80s, I was in a Linguistics class where they gave us what was later called an email address. This worked within the UC computer system and we used it to submit homework, ask the professor questions, and have personal communications (about class-related content/work) with other students in the class.

I remember it seemed almost mystical. The idea of personal computers (Apple was just launching) being able to communicate in a web or network was mind-boggling.

Later on, we learned about its beginnings on "The Well," out of San Francisco, and I time it with the original MacIntosh (?) and the gray scale graphics. Some time later on, I was signing up on BBS's on a rudimentary pc at home, and eventually AOL, which used graphics that were "drawn" with repeated keyboard characters at the time--I kid you not!

I'd love to flesh out this memory with others who were primed at that time to embrace the new technology. I'd also love to hear anyone of any age's story about early internet experiences.

~the tapu