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).
The contents of this post includes the contents of a document called PEGGY.DOC. I believe this was later pasted into an e-mail (from "Connie" to "Peggy") because I think the contents showed up in one of the earlier (and much longer) posts in this series that had a bunch of e-mail. Any time you were composing such an e-mail you would have wanted to do it locally on your computer because the risk was too great that you might be disconnected or something else might go wrong. Plus, you might very well be paying by the minute for your connection time.
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PEGGY.DOC
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Dear Peggy,
I got your letter, card, and stickers today. Thanks for the stickers -
they are some I haven't seen around here!
Since you've asked me twice what Rod called you about last week, I'm
going to try <it's extremely difficult!> to explain here and now.
I just hope that we are still friends afterwards. (By the way, Rod
now understands that he was out of line by calling you about this!)
And please believe me, I'm not saying these things to hurt you - it
is just how I feel <and I've felt a lot of pain I've had to keep to
myself or have only shared with Rod because he knew I was upset at the
time.>
No, Peggy, I'm not upset over the fact that you have not split up with
Stu. And yes, to some extent, I am upset over the changing that is
taking place within you because I don't see much change for the
better. [sigh]
What I have seen is one who was once very positive in her feelings and
thinking, who had so much confidence about her dealings with people
especially on line - I've seen that person become more uncertain, more
unsure, and not very pleased with herself. In the words of another,
you once had it all together but you don't any more. <I hope you
realize how much this hurts me!>
I have tried to be very patient and very understanding of what you
were going thru. But, Peggy, do you realize that you have turned your
back on what we once held to be very important to the three of us
(You, John, and me). I counted so much on your help on line, within
the sig because you have this marvelous personality that makes people
feel at ease and allows them to talk. You know how to bring them out
of their shells, so to speak.
I tried to separate your withdrawal from the sig from my personal
feelings about what was going on but I just can't do that. The sig is
too much a part of me and I still value it's importance. I told
myself that you had the right to do as you wished. I tried to
convince myself that perhaps John and I had both pushed you too much
with this sig stuff or had taken for granted that you would want to be
a part of it all. I kept as silent as I could and made every excuse
in the book but still it hurts.
I want so much to be rid of this feeling of betrayal but I guess time
will have to handle that. I do hope that we are still friends and I
will keep in touch as often as I can. But the very mention of Stu's
name brings this all back; altho I understand your need and desire to
talk about him, I can't deal with it. I am sorry, so very sorry but I
don't know what else to do.
I do love you, Peggy, more than you may realize. You're my special
sister, my family, my friend, my confidant. I hope that you can
forgive me for all this.
Love,
Connie