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 this page generated 2.5.24 05:13 CDT (@467 .beats) Follow @CRZ |
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| 11.6.15 21:33 | | I'm a little in shock. Andrew - Andy - was also Tequila Willy of Tequila Willy's Great Subterranean Carnival, a Modesto BBS where folks who were about 10 years from learning about the Internet, not to mention 20 years from learning about Facebook, would dial in on 300/1200/2400 bps modems to sling text at each other. After a couple years of defiantly stating I was going to be "Chris Zimmerman," the only guy to use his real name on a BBS, I finally relented and picked the obvious handle of "The Zimmie," a nickname I'd picked up in sixth grade. (So, yes, I've spent a lot of time avoiding real-life encounters behind computers.) But he wasn't just the sysop - who somehow never corrected me through all my teeenage years of pronouncing it SIGH-sop - but he became a great, great friend, not only on the computer but out in the real worl, helping me make it through several of my more awkward teenage years. During one formative summer, I think I spent nearly every day with Andy either exploring the then-farmland roads north of Modesto in his terrible car, listening to whatever 12" singles he or I had put on cassette while fiddling with his equalizer to make them sound better, or back at his house or mine, doing stupid stuff on the computers at my or his house. We met lots of unsavory (or not) characters via TWGSC, and around the country he "virtually" knew a lot of cDc guys back before anybody really knew who the cDc were - that was always super impressive. But he always had time for me and let me figure out who The Zimmie really was - letting me co-sysop his BBS and figure out how to use words creatively, program in ways I hadn't learned in school and pick up some really god-awful musical tastes (I can still hear that Eria Fachin 12" followed by the Wa Wa Nee 12" now....brrr!) but most of all act as a surrogate big brother and the guy who had a car and a license when I had neither (and no intention of ever learning to drive). In a sense, he was probably my first mentor - or at least the first one who was part of the same generation I was. For so many Wednesdays in a row, he'd pick me up outside Beyer High and drive me back to his family's house to meet Yoda, Iron Man, Hunter, am I forgetting anybody? and ostensably play D&D (with Andy as dungeon master, of course) but more likely goof off, eat Laura Scudder's Sour Cream & Onion potato chips and shoot pool in his family's basement. It was always a blast. We drifted apart after he figured out girls liked him (lucky bastard) and I left for college in SoCal but we'd always reconnect in the most "random" ways via BBS, snail mail, and most recently several times a year on Facebook when something would remind one of us of the other, leading to a wall post and smiles. Andy once said that he believed "when you die, you get put in a big box in the ground" which bothered me but I never tried to argue with him about it because arguing always seemed pointless. I suspect that his philosophy students may have encountered some of that mindset over the years. Anyway, I don't know if he ever changed his mind on that but I still hope that he's wrong and/or changed his mind and wherever he IS now, he's pretty wide-eyed in wonder about it and possibly smirking. RIP SyS0p, dungeon master, friend. All the sympathy I can give to his wife and children who I've never met but Andy would probably vouch for 'em so I can like 'em too. I'm sorry I won't find myself in Porterville in a couple weeks but I'll be there in spirit - or even virtually. (Thanks and sorry to Joe Ahuna for breaking the news to me) tagging David Youd Renee Messchaert Dominique Niccoli Chris Jones and I wish I knew the Facebook names of some of those other people from the eighties - Liz, Britt, Rush, Pat, Wendy, Cameron, I can think of a half dozen more whose names I've forgotten but their ugly faces haunt me forever. There's a REASON we all hid behind computers back then! (j/k) Growing up sucks; I suggest you avoid it for as long as you can. Andy may have told me that once...it sounds like something one of us would have said. Well...hell, I just said it. "ee" (Announcement of Andrew G. Messchaert's Memorial Service) |