Picture this – it’s 1995, and Siemelle’s father finally caved and purchased a family computer (because in 1995, we didn’t have individual computers, we had one computer that everyone had to use). This huge-ass monitor, tower, speakers, mouse, and keyboard took up an entire desk. It also took about two hours to set up, and we convinced ourselves that it was super fast, super advanced, and we had no idea what future technology would look like. Cut to the computer being fully set up, and the fun can begin. The younger generation will never know the trials and tribulations of dial-up internet, but I have that particular sound ingrained into my memory. Every ear-piercing scream of technology trying to connect to the great and powerful America Online (AOL).

Today, I find myself nostalgic not just for old technology (i.e., dial-up) but also for the era of AOL, instant messaging, chatrooms, and the experience of having no idea what you’re getting into yet becoming immediately addicted anyway. I spent hours answering the following question: A/S/L? Hours, I tell ya, and never knowing who the person on the other end of the connection was. Sweet old lady just wanting to talk? Sure. Some fourteen-year-old pretending to be twenty-five, living in NYC, and on Wall Street? Probably. A serial flasher eager to track me down, ring my doorbell, and show me his/her bits? I mean, they were there, too. The sense that you were doing something dangerous (yet somehow fun) was very addictive.

I miss having an @aol.com email address. Sure, I’m fully aware that I can probably still obtain one and sink back into the nostalgia that way, but I wouldn’t have access to the ever-powerful “You’ve Got Mail.” Whatever happened to that guy? I miss him!

I miss having access (albeit slow) to video and audio clips. I was partial to finding interviews Rosie O’Donnell has conducted on her show and searching for 30-second files of Broadway shows.

And midi files! Friends, it was all about the midi files and finding the one that sounded the most like the song you wanted to download. The only one that ever actually sounded right was the theme song from John Carpenter’s Halloween.

Tonight, I want to go back to 1995. Dial up, connect to AOL, have my friend tell me I have mail, go into a chat room, lie about my age, and then, when someone picks up the landline, complain about how unfair life is.

Here’s to you, AOL.

Siemelle