I know that there are Dopers who are married to other Dopers. I also know that there are parents whose children “dope.” So what I’d like to know is, who are the fellow Dopers that you knew IRL before coming to the boards? They can be spouses, kids, SOs, etc. What I’d really be interested to hear about is if you found out that a fellow Doper is someone you knew back in The Day (or someone you’ve known all along).
As for me: no one, yet. I briefly thought that I might have gone to junior high school with jarbabyj until she shattered my delusions. As for the other Dopers who live in my city; I had never seen any of them before in my life prior to meeting them after coming to the boards.
I knew Dynosaur before he came to the SDMB. Hell, I didn’t even know he was ON the SDMB 'til I saw him at the last Springfield get-together. That was quite a surprise! I also knew Flypsyde (well, we’d bumped into each other a few times) before the SDMB.
BTW, I saw your wife at the State Fair earlier this week. 
Ya know, it occurs to me that we should try to time the next Springfieldfest for State Fair time. Sure, it’s more difficult to get hotel rooms, but instead of just introducing people to horseshoes, they could eat corndogs, elephant ears, alligator on a stick, etc., and see the butter cow!
I introduced two others to the SDMB: enilorac and KKBattousai. KKB’s still around, but enilorac decided the board wasn’t her thing. I think she just prefers to do her flirting IRL.
I knew imthjckaz, Angie Gailbird, and PuRpLe PrIdE before I joined, but that probably doesn’t count because I introduced all three to the SDMB.
[hijack]I take it you are discussing Springfield, Illinois, and the Illinois State Fair. When I was a kid, that was my favorite place to go in the whole world. I was born in Springfield, and my grandmother lived at 1150 North Ninth (which I think was close to Grand, but I can’t remember now).
When she died, Dad sold the house, and it was eventually torn down. So are any of you Illinois dopers from Virden, or Marseilles, or Harvey? Maybe I know more of you than I think.[/hijack]
[Edited by David B on 08-18-2001 at 09:27 AM]
1150 North Ninth? I pass by there every weekday on my way to work. Indeed, I work just down the street. I’ll have to see if the house is still there.
The house was torn down, either in 1993 or 1994. There used to be a Mello-Creme Donuts to the left of it (as you face the house) and a Chinese restaurant on the right.
My Dad was born and raised in Springfield, and we lived in the area, in the small town of Virden, until I was nine.
The house was in a business-zoned area, and my grandfather had registered it as a dress shop (which it never was). My grandmother worked for many years at a dress shop by the Capitol building. I was born in St. John’s Hospital, and my sister Helen is buried in the Angel part of the Catholic cemetery.
Are you too young to remember the doughnut shop?
Well, obviously I knew PLDennison before I came to the SDMB. And I met Satan (banned) and ** Drain Bead** long before I came to the MB. PLD along with several of the DC/MD/VA contingency (including Satan) convinced me to start reading and posting here.
The interesting one is a fellow doper who showed up in my office. I mentioned the board to someone as being a source for some information, this new employee was at the time sitting in the cubicle…sorry…workstation next to mine. After the boss-type person left, she stood up and said she posted there too. Her handle is Winnie. She’s a riot (good way) IRL, and we actually have a lot of other stuff in common–besides work and SDMB…but she hasn’t yet decided (or coordinated her schedule) to brave a Dopefest yet.
Yeah, she mentioned that! At the time, I was at “One Particular Harbor” enjoying the sounds of Son of a Sailor and downing my third (or was it fourth?) Corona®.
Feynn is my SO. Aunt Slappy is my sister, although I believe she’s only made one post so far. I’m also trying to talk my best friend into coming here. If she does, her usual username is Smidge.
Tsarina and I were bestest friends in our high school days…and we still are. Weird thing is, we discovered the boards independently of each other. One day, I said something like “Oh, I read that on the Straight Dope boards. I hang out there a lot,” and she’s like, “Uh, I read that too…” It was suprising and nifty.
Dammit, Juniper, I was just about to mention your name in this thread when I saw the title! So I guess we are still bestest friends. I think I first heard of the boards from you, though… so I have you to blame.
Turns out that bunnygirl was working across the street from my dorm when I started posting, too. Cool, no?
AWB and I, while I don’t believe we had actually met, used to hang out in some of the same places and have friends in common. We discovered this through a thread about karaoke, of all things.
My brother posts here very infrequently under the name Harald Bluetooth.