Megalextoria

A summary for those that haven’t been keeping up with this series:

I found a bunch of 5.25″ disks at a thrift store a number of years ago. I finally got around to acquiring a 5.25″ disk drive and extracting the contents a while back. Since then I have been posting the contents here.

Based on the contents, at least some of these disks were apparently once owned by someone named Connie A. Buys who used to run the “Close Encounters” Special Interest Group (SIG) on Delphi in the mid 1980s.

A specific definition of this SIG was found in a previous document on one of the disks: “This SIG, known as “Close Encounters”, is a forum for the discussion of relationships that develop via computer services like the Source, CompuServe, and Delphi. Our primary emphasis is on the sexual aspects of those relationships.”

Everything was text based from whatever terminal program you used to dial in to Delphi’s servers. Many of these disks have forum messages, e-mails and chat session logs. All of this is pre-internet stuff and I don’t know if there are any archives in existence today of what was on Delphi in the 1980s. In any case, much of this stuff would have been private at the time and some of it is quite personal.

I’ve been splitting up the contents of this disk (descriptively labeled “File Disk”) since it contains a number of documents, some of which are pretty long. A 5.25″ floppy disk can still hold an impressive amount of info when it is just text. (see the previous parts here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

The contents of this post is from a document called ROD.DOC. A letter from Connie to Rod regarding their then new relationship. I believe this content or something very much like it was included in a previous post as part of a terminal log that involved sending the actual e-mail.

===
ROD.DOC
===

My dearest darling Rod,

I mentioned to you that there is something I wanted to put into
writing because it would be easier for me that way.

I'm not sure, as I start this, whether I will send it to you dmail or
wait until you are here and give you a printed copy to read then.  I
want to be able to be with you but I also want you to have time to
think thru what I'm about to say and the two conflict with each other.

I would like to re-state some things we already know:

1.  You've mentioned when you come to me, you will have to give up
your present job - but I'm not sure of the exact reasons behind that
statement.

2.  You've said you are afraid of losing your son.  This I can very
well understand because of his age and you want to allow him time to
mature a little more in the hopes he can understand later.

3.  You've said your marriage would be history, which, of course, is
the only way we could be together.  This also means giving up your
home and the things you and Charlet have worked for all the past
years.

4.  You've said you would be bankrupt and I am assuming you mean the
full legal implications that are involved.

5.  You've indicated to me over and over again how segmented your life
is.

The full realization of what you would be giving up is what led to my
comment Saturday night about "destroying you". 

I am very concerned, perhaps because I don't know all the reasons
behind your various comments listed above, that you are making such
statements and decisions in a sincere effort to put that part of your
life "in a box on the shelf" - to keep it entirely segmented from the
life we will have together.

If that is the case, don't you realize that there *will always be*
ties to the past? There will be alimony.  There will be, depending on
Rodney's age at the time, child support.  There will be times when you
will have to deal with Charlet for various reasons, especially when it
comes to the son the two of you have, just as there will also be times
when I will have to deal with Chuck, even after you and I are
together.

As for the bankruptcy, that's another matter - because it will
seriously affect the starting of your own business!  Who's going to
financially back someone who can't handle their own finances? And
believe me, they will want to know all about your financial history!

And, sweetheart, don't think, when it comes to your marriage, that any
attorney is going to let you get away with giving up *everything* just
because you might want to.  Believe me! I've been there.

Anyway, now I've had my say and I think I will send it on to you so
that we can discuss it all in more detail when we are together.
I just want to be sure you don't start putting certain things into
action based on decisions you might have already made 

I love you so very much!

Love,
Connie