"Hudson, Apone... That's it, we're screwed" - Memories of a cyber nerd.

I made friends with a geek.  I'd say that this goes back ages, and being as it's another memory, it goes back years but last night, the geek and I (Fellow geek, that I am) wallowed in nostalgia.  I say "wallowed", in reality, we soaked it into our pores and let it refresh our little cells and braincells.  It must have been a good thing as I didn't get to bed till 3am.

My friend is into board games and he took me onto a world tour of some really obscure ones, I saw "Rebound, Tilt, Police Alarm!and then we went through old TV and movies.  This is where things got interesting (not that they wasn't before) but it bought back really pleasant memories...  To get you in the mood, I'll have to tell you how me and my geek friend met.  So fasten your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy ride back to the 80s.

I had a job.  I worked in a warehouse (No, not "Warehouse 13", I wish (and yeah there will be geek references all the way through this) and it was part of the textile industry

 

Me outside the textile mill

Anyway, due to cheap imports, the factory closed down and I was made redundant,. (but I wasn't in the factory at the time, I was in hospital having tumours removed from my arm pits).  When I came out I sign on the dole.  This was the first time ever I'd been unemployed and anyway, they placed me on a work program.  This was a interesting thing (I didn't realise it at the time) building duck ponds (SORRY Natural environmental habitats) a farmer would donate part of his land and we'd move in and build a pond.  I now like to think that we were the "A team of "Duck Pond" builders but I think we just used to arse around.

Anyway, we were a motley crew, I was like the middle of the group age wise, and what used to happen, Mum would bake cakes and pastries and I'd take them in for the group.  This of course, made me popular (The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, after all) and (I'll probably do more about this motley crew at a later date).  There was one guy there I got on well with (No it's not the geek).  His name was Barry and he had bright pink hair.  As you can see from the picture, my hair was fairly normal, so this friendship was strange to say the least.  The thing was though, the van used to drop us off at the same spot and we got to talking.  He'd recently been bought a Spectrum 48k computer and he wondered if I wanted to see it.  I of course, was polite and vaguely interested, said "Yes".

When I arrived, I was taken into the living room and Barry and his brother were playing "3D Death Chase" .  This sounds more lethal than it was and as you can see, from the link, it wasn't pretty.   I watched, and showed of my skills as a player (basically played like an epileptic amoeba) and it was a joyous few hours.  Barry's sister turned up, and trailing behind her, was her boyfriend.(OK you can applause now, the geek has entered the room).  His eyes lit up when he saw the game, and like every typical male, he wanted to play and Barry's sister was relegated to observer. (Don't worry she dumped him later (or he dumped her)).

The weeks/months went by and Jonathan (formerly known as Geek  (I felt like calling "Geek" all the while, suggested that he belonged to an "S&M" Rubber club) became a friend.  I managed to obtain a "Spectrum 128k" computer and had purchased the game "Aliens".  Now the game, with it's limited graphics managed to recreate the scene where you're controlling the Colonial Marines. (Are you bored yet, it gets worse (or better if you're a geek)) and I invited Jonathan round.  He knew what we were playing and bought the soundtrack album round and so, with all the lights off and just by the light of the TV screen, we'd try to kill the queen.

OK this sounds, totally boring BUT there were two things going for it;  the soundtrack and Jonathan.  He did drama as a hobby and we'd sit there, he'd be doing all the voices, and physically shouting at the screen as each marine was taken by an alien. The atmosphere was ripe with tension (and it wasn't because of the "Red Hot" Crisps we'd been munching)

So Jon, I dedicate this blog to you...  and the late Hudson, Apone ,Vasquez and all the other dead marines we left behind.