Internet Highway - First Contact

I would like to have a few more entries in this languishing page that describes your FIRST CONTACT. 

That is that rush when you first hit the "internet highway".

Recall - that after all those years doing your civilian thing and putting the Navy and submarines way in the back of your mind and rarely remembering any of it and then just out of curiosity you entered the word SUBMARINE or the name of a boat and clicked that mouse and suddenly there it was. And the memories poured through and washed over you like a wave.

Then you found your first Submarine forum - most likely it was Rontini. There were a couple of others in the 1990s as I recall. But like in CASSABLANCA; "everybody goes to Ricks's" - on the net, everybody goes to Martini's.

Then  your keyboard began transmitting a kind of strange, esoteric manner of speech. An almost forgotten style of syntax and grammar  that rolled up out of your memories; down your arm, and through your "typin' finger".

Words, acronyms, references and phrases that only those who had done what you did ever used. It was "inside stuff" and you rarely spoke it because your family and civvy co-workers would think you were a bit goofy. It was a remembered manner of expressing yourself that went out onto that internet highway and by golly, someone OUT THERE understood what the hell you meant without any (usually futile) longwinded explanations.

And best of all they were answering in kind.

CONTACT!!!

SUDDENLY you had returned to your old boat!

"Damn! I'd forgotten all about that" was probably your first response.

Then your wife came over to see what the strange whooping and giggling was all about and you tried to explain to her.  If she had been with you when you were riding the boats she already knew. If she came into your life after you were a civilian... well you had a helluva lot of explaining to do. And when you took her to her first boat reunion or some other bubblehead get together she finally began to understand.

Now that you got the picture lets get back to that ON-RAMP.

So --- what I want to do is make some more additions to this section. Give it some thought. Post your thing here or email it to me.

Make it good. Like all those long stories everyone was posting ten years ago. Then it seemed every old bubblehead had suddenly turned into a budding Hemingway. It was great. But that level of mind- dumps can't be sustained. Welll, actually, yes it can... if your name is Dex. He's the only one of us that can turn a one hitch experience into an endless stream of entertaining prose. Dex would be a Creative Writing Course Professor's favorite student. They always say "Write what you know". He do. He do.  (But he don't do paragraphs)

Anyway... Think about it

The gist of your piece should be along the line of what is already here. 

Sid

Email
sidmXsid-hill.com
Replace the red x with@