Many years ago The Friendship Express was started the same was as thousands of other bbs's have been. Some guy in his basement plugged a modem into his computer and people started logging on. For 99% of the bbs's in the world that would be the beginning, middle and end of the story - Six months later the hassle is to great and the reward to little, the fun goes out of being a sysop. That could have been the end of TFE too, but something happened...
Thru Club H at first, then thru Club F, GT's, Nooners and house parties other online users got faces, names and personalities. In short, they became human and like any other group of humans they set about building a community. It would become a community unlike any before it. These were people drawn together not by mere geography, but by common ideals and like minds. It would be a "virtual" community, where real people and real relationships are connected by streams of bits and bytes every day, connections reinforced in real life every week almost.
Our community has experienced the joys of births, romance, marriages. The triumphs of graduations and accomplishments, and sadly the pain of loss. We have become pioneers on an electronic frontier.
We are fortunate to live in a time when technology makes this possible, and we still have sense to appreciate it. For it is not the technology, but the hummanity that truely makes the connection.
R & V, sensual2@tfexp.com
©1987 - 2002 Aspire, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any human or computer language in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author or Aspire, Inc., PO Box 581515, Minneapolis, MN 55458.