Love Story, Part I

Back in the mid-90s, I spent quite a bit of time on America Online in a chat room called "Virginians Online". Many of the folks from that chat room would meet as a group for dinners, bowling, dancing, or parties, so I knew quite a few folks in person as well as just online. There was one person from Roanoke, VaMan101, that I talked to occasionally. One night, he mentioned that he lived at an apartment complex on a particular road . . . and it was the road that I lived on! YIKES!  He lived about two miles from me!  I never revealed to people where I lived, so when I realized how close he lived to me, it freaked me out a little, so I decided to not talk to him any longer even though he seemed very nice.  Not too long after that, I stopped using AOL.

About two years later, I rejoined AOL and went into the Virginians Online chat room. In just a couple of minutes, an instant message popped up from VaMan101 welcoming me into the room. I immediately assumed that he remembered me because I remembered him. So I just started happily chatting away! Well, what I didn't know at the time was that he DID NOT remember me and the only reason that he sent that instant message to me was simply because he was a chat room host and was just being polite!

Over the next few days we went on chatting and he seemed pretty nice. Then he asked me for my phone number so that he could call me. I refused because I did not give my phone number out to people online. I told him that if he would give me HIS phone number that I would call him. Now, I know what you are thinking. Boy, she is some kind of stupid because all he had to do was look at Caller ID. Well, the joke would be on you because that was in the Stone Ages before Caller ID!

He seemed to be pretty nice on the phone and we seemed to have quite a bit in common. We exchanged GIFs (photos). After a couple of weeks of chatting online and on the phone, he asked me to meet him in person.  At that time, I felt fairly safe meeting someone like that as long as I took a few precautions. There is NO WAY that I would do that nowadays!

I told him that I would meet him at the bowling alley on Franklin Road on Saturday afternoon.  That way, it was still daylight!  I also told several of my friends what I was doing and gave them all of the information that I had about him. As the date approached, I was getting more and more nervous. I had told him that I would meet him inside at the snack bar.  As I walked in, I saw him sitting at the snack bar with a soda.  I had the advantage because I saw him first and managed to get almost all the way to him before he saw me. Now, when he looked at me, there was something that made me a bit leery.

To be continued!

Copyright 2013--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean