My name is Mamie. My birthname is Mary, but only my mother calls me that… lol. I am 54 years old (yeah Torch…. i’m old too lol), and I live in Philly with my partner Rich (RVB442) and our two cats, Kali and Sandy. I have a daugther Rachael, who is married, and has blessed me with 4 wonderful grandchildren. Many of you attending Texfest or Hugy’s 2005 were able to meet my son Zac (who was once a part time roomie). I also have a married stepdaughter (with 4 kids) and stepson (married with 2 kids). I am fortunate enough to keep in touch with them, so my grandchildren actually total 10 (pfffft suitey lol) I have been a professional children’s imagery photographer for nearly 15 years, but have been taking a break since my move to Philly six months ago. I needed a break after have owned my own studio. I love all kinds of music, and while oldies (Motown and Doo-wop) are high on my list, my first love is all the current alternative rock and techno/transit dance mixes. My exposure to that type of music was in part to my being involved with Zac’s band for nearly 10 years.
I believe it was early in 2000 that I had my first online experience. When my son had come home from college, he brought his computer, and introduced me to the world of chatrooms. Being into photography, I first ventured into the Photography chatroom and soon realized that it wasn’t for me. I then checked out the Biker Room , becauseI owned a motorcycle but soon realized they weren’t talking “Bikes”. lol I then found “Oldies Music” and figured , OK, I’m old and I like music so I’ll give it a try.
The first thing that struck me was that everyone was greeting me as I came in the room. I kept thinking..how do they know that ? At that time my screen name was MAME252 (my name and birth date). Rich used to, and still does, take the sign name of people entering the room, and makes up a silly greeting out of it. It started with MameThatTune, and then AHorseWithNoMame, etc. The first roomies I remember were RYDELLSANS, AIDY, SIXTYSLVR, HUMPTY (who is now EDIBLEX), SAYNOCANDO, SPNNRN, DOVEY, ECHO, LUVMYCHAIR, REMO, PLASTIC, MSSTANG, LORIANNA, CTESSIN, GOHAWKS, ZOOT, RACE, TERRILEE, SWEETSHAR and RVB442. I would sit for nights watching the conversation wanting to jump in, but like most felt intimidated by the camaraderie of it all. They talked about music and cheetos and gorilla suits and sheep and hump days and each night there was a new word for the night that was made into the song titles.
A few months later (May) I came into the room one evening and they were talking about being in a hot tub. It was RVB’s birthday and they were passing around margaritas and talking about bubble bath. I am staring at the screen wondering how they can all be in a hot tub and type on the computer at the same time!! That is when I realized how to use words as actions while in the chat room.
I don’t remember who it was but the first Wav that was sent to me was “Elusive Butterfly” and to this day I still have it …. mostly for sentimental reasons. I didn’t get into the Wav sharing until about 8 months later. That in itself is another story!! LOL. I now am the proud owner of over 8000 mp3 and Wav files and have now gone through 3 computers since I first came online.
The first roomies I met in person were SIXTYSLVR (Lydia) and PLASTICS (Jim). I was married at the time and my husband and I had gone to Florida for a photography seminar. Having been close to Lydia for nearly a year I was so excited to finally meet her and give her a real hug!!. The strangest thing was to hear her voice on the phone and then of course get to meet her in person. She and Jim joined us for dinner. We had an excellent time, but it was far too short. This was January of 2001.
Shortly after that meeting, I saw the roomies talking about “HUGY’s”. I honestly thought it was some kind of bar or club and that the roomies met there and danced and sang. REDHED (Linette) explained to me that HUGY was a roomie who opened his house for us over the Memorial day weekend, and asked if I would like to be added to the guest list. At that point in time my husband and I had discussed separating (amicably BTW), so I decided that I would like to go and meet all these crazy people with whom I shared my evenings with, and had gotten really close to. Because I had waited too long the airfare to Reading was nearly $1000.00 for one. He knew that I really wanted to go, although he, like many others in my life, thought I was nuts to go spend a weekend with people I had only met online. He agreed to take me and it was by far the best time of my life. I will remember that weekend forever. There were over 120 people there during the course of the weekend. HUGY and BARB were the most gracious hosts and we all danced, sang, laughed and cried. I was exhausted both physically and emotionally by the time I returned home to Detroit. I had rolls and rolls of film to commemorate the experience. I was grateful to my ex for taking me there. After that weekend he understood how important those people were to me.
What I remember most of the first years of my experience in the “Oldies Room” was the laughter!!. I would sit alone in my room and be in tears by the antics of SXTYSLVER, REDHED,TORCH, RVB, MSSTANG, JAZZ and AIDY. During the summer months with my window open, my neighbors must of thought I was nuts as I was actually laughing out loud!! We were quite a group then, and although many roomies have come and gone over the years, I still remain close to those who no longer share their evenings with us. The players have changed over the years, but we still have a very unique group of friends that we still share our family life, happy and sad times and love of music with.
I have been very fortunate to have attended so many parties over the years and have met nearly 200 roomies in that time. HUGY’s from 2001 to 2005, HUGY’s Halloween party 2003-2005, ROC’sBBQ 2003-04 and MADPOET’s BBQ in the summer of 2001. We have attended TEXFEST in 2005 and my mom, sister and her husband and my son, who all live in Texas, joined us for the weekend. My youngest sister JAZZYSMOM412 (Wendi) was also there with us. What a treat!. We have also been to gatherings in Florida, Las Vegas, Chicago, Delaware and Cleveland. I have a scrapbook of all our oldies parties and I bring it with me to show all the roomies when we have a party.
One great memory for me is HUGYFEST2004. I was sitting at the airport in Detroit waiting for my flight to Philadelphia and I called my sister Wendi to say Hi before my flight was going to leave. She asked where I was and I told her I was going to HUGY’s and she said “I want to go”. I laughed and said “Why don’t you?” The next day she got in her car with her little puppy and drove the 10
hours to get there. She didn’t know anyone but me and Rich and she had just come off a 12 hour shift at the hospital. It was just awesome for me to share that part of my life with her. A week after the party we went out and purchased a computer and now she is hooked along with us.
Listing memorable moments is hard but here are a few highlights,
Meeting MSSTANG for the first time…couldn’t stop crying.
RACE and ANGIE joining us in Vegas.
JOVI, REVVY and LOUISE joining us at The Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Spending New Years Eve with RED and TORCH in Florida
Singing Doo-Wop with the Del Roomios
Chicago – GOHAWKS and the gang taking on Ed Debevic’s
Having lunch and meeting Joe (I LOVE DC 5).
Watching EDNA get off the bus in Los Angeles
BEANIE – we lost parents at same time, and shared that sadness together
Zac singing to MSDEBBY at HUGY2005 and flirting with WESTIE(Nancy)… Sigh I’m such a proud mom….
Venice Beach with REVVY, RACE and ANGIE, ZOOT, CARPENTER, BOOTSCOOTLARRY and LOUISE.
Meeting YUMMEYTOES for lunch.
Spending the weekend with PETEYSMOKE in Delaware.
Room birthday parties and making up birthday names.
Lydia (SXTYSLVR) and her machette.
Zac, joining us in the oldies room and EDNA flirting with him before we told her he was our son (lol.. naked jello twister)
AIDY and her cot
Surprising KACEY at the airport in Philadelphia.
KATE telling a joke or a story that took at least 10 minutes in the room.
ZOOT, my #2 dance partner
LYLE – playing Andy Williams in Wegman’s parking lot
MOBIL’s Diamond Stylus Awards.
When people ask how Rich and I met, and I say online, they give me the “Look”. Sometimes it’s just easier to say that we met through mutual friends. Like so many of you have experienced, you learn so much more about a person as you sit at a keyboard and relay your feelings. Without intonation of voice, you must sometime look past the words on the screen. Rich and I had shared many nights online talking about our families, our mutual love of music, poetry and muscle cars. Who would of thought after 30 years of my adult life I would have met my soul mate on a computer screen. With both of us going through a divorce at the same time, it was great to have a friend to talk to back then, who was sharing the same experience. I never imagined that it would turn into what we have now. We have been fortunate that our biggest supporters have been music oldies roomies. I smile, even today, as I enter the Oldies room at the sight of old friends, and delight in the new ones. I realize that Rich and I are the “Old Regulars” now, and we look forward to meeting some of the NEWBIES at the upcoming gatherings. And yes… we do have our computers in the same room next to each other lol. There is one roomie in particular, who I have been very close to over the years and I hope to meet her some day and that is JAZZY {DONTFRYBACONNAKED). We have talked often on the phone and maybe one day our paths will cross.
If someone would ask me who my best friends are, I would have to say “My Roomies”, some of whom I have met and some who I probably will never meet. My “imaginary” friends so to speak. They have made me laugh and cry. Over the past 6 years they have shared the joy of each birth of a grandchild with me. They were there when my stepfather died (I was in the room at the time) and they gave prayers when my son-in-law was severely ill. The sadness we have all felt as we have lost roomies and now, with living so far from my family and being homesick occasionally, I am closer to my sister Wendi, as she is now not just my sister but a roomie as well. As far as changing the room or making it better, I am not sure that is possible. So many personalities have come and gone and with most things in life. Changes will happen. Some good and some bad. I think mostly in conclusion that I would like to see some of the old roomies come back to visit. Besides Rich has so much fun with the snerts!! LOL.
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