Of all the Life stories I could tell, this is one for the books (or at least these pages).
I was living in CA and needed to purchase a modem so that my XT computer could connect to a BBS (the Internet was not around in those days). This was about 1988 or ‘89. I don’t remember the speed of my computer but am guessing it was somewhere between 8MHz-20MHz with 64 (or did I have 256)Mb of RAM. I am typing this on a laptop that is 2.54 GHz with 4Gb of RAM.
As I said, I needed a modem that I was hoping would be 300 to 1200 baud. Any faster was expensive, but desirable Since I was buying it myself (the law firm I worked at gave me a PC to use which I eventually bought) I felt I needed a good deal. From all the ones I saw I got a Cardinal Digital modem. I had only worked with analog ones before but this one was supposed to work with Windows (which I hated at the time and didn’t care for the mouse so I didn’t have it installed).
Well, the modem worked great and even worked with Windows when I did finally break down. I moved to IN in 1993 and several doors from me was a unit with a built-in fireplace. Well, one day (I don’t remember if I had the computer on but don’t think so), we had the usual (1995?) thunder/lightening storms and I even had a short cord to disconnect my modem (I thought I was prepared) if need be.
Well, lightening struck the chimney, traveled into my house and fried my modem. I say that because when I tried it again after the storm I got no DT. As you can imagine I was not too happy. I guess I should’ve unplugged it right away. How did I know about the chimney? The bricks on the ground and the damage to the building gave it away immediately.
When I next went to work, I called the vendor (Cardinal) to see if I could get it repaired or replaced. I was on hold waiting for their tech guy, named Charles Brecht (and I remember thinking couldn’t be…) and I didn’t have to wait long. He had my name too and after a few words I asked “You ever heard of a school called Patton?” Bells and whistles went off for both of us. He was indeed one of my graduating classmates who I hadn’t seen since June 6, 1971 when we graduated. He put me on hold for a minute and when he came back he told me that since this was a Digital modem, the company would replace it at no charge, including shipping! I guess they wanted the modem back to do some kind of testing. I was thrilled! Not only was I going to get my modem replaced, Free of Charge, but I had reconnected with an old friend. It took another 10 years to meet face-to-face, but he did visit me when his work brought him to town. I was happy to learn that he had married Debbie Schroll whose mother ran the local soda shop where we would all hang out when we went to town on the weekends.
As far as I knew, we all had a crush on her.
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