Transcript, with extra information:
Hello, Friend
So, welcome to the first entry for the Books fo the Derad. I had posted about it yesterday and somebody said that’s great timing, because it’s Richard’s birthday.
Well, that was interesting timing on my part.
So who was Richard? Richard Sandoval was one of my best friends from high school. I’m gonna tell a quick easy story about it, but, uh, yeah.
So this dork right here, that’s Richard. Probably right around 21 years old, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger, but not by much.
Anyways, this story takes place when we were in high school. So, we went out and I believe I was driving at the time. We were visiting with some folks at their place, It was a party. We weren’t there for very long, and didn’t know a lot of the people there.
And this is the era of home phones. There’s no cell phones yet[1]. There’s caller ID, but it’s iffy. So handing out your phone number to people is a little different. You couldn’t give out your email address because this is the 1980’s. That really wasn’t much of a thing. Him and I were both into BBS’s, but that was the precursor to the availability of email[2], and most people didn’t have access. I preface with this, because it’s important to the story[3]
So, we’re getting ready to leave, and some gal runs up to Rich and says “Can I get your number?”
And he says “Sure. Five. See ya!” And gets int he car.
I’m stifling a laugh and I shut the door and we leave. Rich looks at me and goes “You know – she was pretty cute. I can never go back on that. That joke was too good. I can never give her my phone number, because, no, I just can’t undo that joke.
So for a number of years, it was a running gag. “5. See ya!”
That’s the first story of the books of the dead, and this particular book is for Richard Sandoval.
[1] OK, cell phones existed, they just weren’t commonplace
[2] I’m sure someone’s going to say “But… I had email in the 80’s.” Yes, it existed, but the number of people that had it was low, and then the 90’s started really pushing it hard with AOL, etc. But most BBS messaging was still just local messages, or things like FIDONet. And if you have to ask what FIDONet was, then you probably weren’t someone saying email existed (or you didn’t know enough about that era.)
[3] “I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time…” Yes, the written versions of the stories are going to have little asides to them. Consider them bonus content that further explains a piece of history, or lightens the mood with some dumb joke.