30 Days of Days: Day 9-The Day You Discovered The Internet

When the internet was starting to gain popularity back in the late 90's, I didn't yet have a computer. I was a single mom with 2 kids and internet was not yet a priority.

I had been sneaking on the world wide web at work, but I couldn't really explore like I wanted to. I was not about to explain what Blackplanet was to my white bosses.

I'm not even sure how the conversation started, but it ended up with the deputy director offering me the use of the office laptop. In hindsight that was probably a dumb move, but at the time, I thought she was really my friend. She said it was only used when the big boss had gone to Slovenia and it was just sitting. To keep it as long as I wanted.

So I grabbed a handful of free AOL disks and so my addiction began. I used to HATE the AOL chat rooms. You would enter, folks would check out your pic and then you'd get flooded with requests and personal messages. I often wonder if I crossed any of my present friends in Black Voices?

I really started making solid friendships via BlackPlanet.

I remember something like 120 free AOL hours and I'd be up til dang near 6 am off into the world wide web...