I was known as Bedale when I first joined - that's where my mother was born. Ah, the good old day, I have been coming here since shortly after the site was created l994 or 5 I always forget which year it was birthed. Marda always knows the answer to that question.

Don,you don't know how good it is to see you posting. I've really missed seeing you here. Sheila..I'm not the expert on the beginnings of the GP. I didn't get here until 97. Andie might know though,or Linda C. They were here before me.

I remember Linda C coming onboard. I think Andie was here before me. I was around before the Garden Party was a forum.

I got here through a now defunct search engine, the name escapes me. I was looking for advice on Calla Lily's and it brought be right here - I got all kinds of good feedback on that. Brandy whatshername was here...ruthanne, andie, Tammy(?) Also a woman who had a lot of goats.

She lived in Sweden, didn't she? Brandy whatsername was Burgundy though, wasn't it? I got here through a defunct search engine as well. It was excite. I really liked that one, but it was a strange name for one. There was another British lady who lived in Cincinnati. Bigfoot was still a bachelor. Kim was onboard way back then if I remember correctly. Pinkie hadn't even started traveling yet. Most people didn't post many pics because nobody much were into digital cameras and scanners were very, very expensive. LOL! We were all so new at it, we were very free with our names and email addresses, and you had to keep reminding people NOT to answer some questions as they were way, way too identifiable, like their birthdates and mother's maiden names. One woman posted so much intimate stuff, anybody who was motivated enough could have ordered a copy of her birth certificate. LOL.

Oh, yes, Burgundy. LOL. I actualy prefer a nice glass of
Remy Martin over a Burgundy:)

Big Foot was not only single but he posted a lot of information I really didn't want to hear about his romantic life...I thought he was a doofus. We came to really like each other in the end. I still think of him as a younger brother:)

I miss the lad. I miss Liz too.

We need more left field postings here...

Wow, I miss him!

Suzanne was working for The Big Wally. Bigfoot hadn't connected with Liz yet, and I remember him talking about a big gal on a motorcycle. He liked to live on the edge. I also remember a debate about toilets flushing. Ruthanne's kids were still in high school. Cora Lee was a regular poster from Iowa, I think.

I cam on board in March of 1996, but the site had been up and running before then & was obviously popular as I got here through a URL printed in the newspaper for gardening sites.

Back then there was no Garden Party forum & we started chatting on the Favorites forum until Spike got so sick of us mucking around he set this forum up for all of us. Ruthann was here when I started & also a guy from northern California who went by the name of Zin (for his favorite California varietal) who was into bonsai. Also Robert & Dorie, although they hadn't hooked up yet and Clare from St. Louis, RA's mother Jean, Pinky (not the flamingo, the person). Cora LEa & now I can't remember everyone else.

I remember as I was new to the Internet how surprising that a sense of community could develop among people you never saw.

And no Don, while I've still got gazing balls in my garden, the original bit the dust in a Dallas hail storm about 7 years ago. Now you've piqued my curiosity. I may have to jump over to Favorites and step into the Wayback Machine & see what's still over there.

Oh yes.........the Zin thing. I'd forgotten that. Didn't he post a picture what got him removed? Linn was a real regular and her posts left me cracking up. She had Pinkie for awhile and he went "Amish". Bill in Missouri who worked for a radio station. The little gal who's father was a Nobel Prize winner......Diana. Do you remember her sea of mulch? Was his name Ken? He was the tree hugger extraordinaire. He still posts on another forum and I see him around. Rich Akers a landscaper from the PNW. The gal who's hubby bought a missle silo. Roof top gardener from NYC who had to tote soil, compost and everything else up about eight flights. Vin our very young gardener who was all of about thirteen. Who could forget Traute? I often think of her. I wish I could remember her name, but she was a professor who lived close to RA and lost her husband to brain cancer. Cat man who lost his wife. And of course the blue man himself who succumbed eventually and left us with memories. The pig lady from Kansas who had a dream to start a garden center. Miss Anne Thrope. The butterfly gardener in Florida. Rena, who's dog chewed a corner off her house. She left Oklahome I think for the Ozarks and drifted away from us. MaryB was a real regular back then instead of a welcome visitor. Clare I also miss.

I arrived in 1996 when things were up and running. I think the guy who got dumped for posting a pic was named Kirk. He was always pushing the envelope but that pic caused Spike to push him right off a cliff.

I used to e-mail a woman named Reb and we exchanged seeds (from her) and daylily pieces (from me). There were Cookie and Susie--I used to meet up with Cookie for a time but she dumped me! I have no idea why though I suspect a controlling spouse, and that's how it goes. I wonder if she still has all those daylilies I gave her. Then there was Janet M from MD, who I think still lurks on occasion-- I'll be seeing her in a few weeks with her DH and gorgeous baby Joy, and Kimka from DC. I still miss JohnD even though I took issue with him when he was here. He was/is an interesting and knowledgable man and showed great photos.

That was quite an era, and I must say I did like it when there was only Spike in control and not a corporation.

Reminiscing...

Little River Band 1978....1978!!!

Sigh... I still have the vinyl album Diamantina Cocktail.

Would like to hear from John, too.

Kirk was into landscaping. No, this was a really fun guy who posted the racy pic. He was from California. SusieQ was a grocery cashier and had customers who were always pushing each other down. I have never seen a shopper knock anyone down with their carts, so I always wondered where she worked. LOL. There was the very lovely lady who adopted a Chinese baby and collected teapots. I got to meet her at one of the get-togethers. Also was a gal named Louise I think. Alls I could remember about her last name is the root word meant Lamb in latin.

There was also a gal who visited frequently when she was going through a throat surgery. She was a personnel manager (sorry, that's not PC now, human resources?) She had a baby and then life happened and I lost track of her.
Who could ever forget Tammy?

Off-subject, but Dorph, a member of LRB is best friends with my DH. When he's home off tour he usually comes in to the radio station for some on-air time. Greg Hind. Super guy. We got to stay on their bus before their show when we traveled to North Dakota to watch them.

The woman who lived near Ruthanne and lost her husband to cancer was Ruth K. She had wonderful roses and her house was gorgoeus inside. She lives in New Jersey now.

Dicken...let's never forget dear Dicken.

Tammy lived not to far from me then but somehow we never managed to meet, she had a lot of drama in her life. And there was some kind of romantic connection between she and the Rev.

Reb lives in Brenham, TX and we got to be good friends & I see her almost every year. Either she comes up here for some kind of gardening event or I go down to her house & we hit the Antique Rose Emporium or go antiquing at Roundtop.

I heard from Kirk for a while after he got booted from this forum (and I must have been on a business trip or something because I don't know why that happened.) I do remember that Stew, Linda C's son was kicked off for a joking post about the one Teletubby character that some people were insisting was a gay character.

I also remember Tammy, & I'll put her in the same category as Burgundy & that's all I'll say about that.

And don't forget Marie & all of her hats. And Miss Piggy, whose real name was Sharon (I think).

Suzy, Traute lived in Canada & was always in a hassle with the city where she lived because she said that her garden was one of naive plants & they said it was full of weeds.

And who was that kid (a teenage boy) who we thought was missing in flooding in the PNW & we sent out a cyber search party that ended up in the newspaper?

Reb and her husband stopped by here on the way back from a get-together. I fed them pumpkin pie. LOL. She was precious and I wished I'd have had days to talk to her, instead of hours. She was on the brink of retirement at the time, I think. Her husband was a really gifted photographer. Don't forget Gillian! (Pronounced like a J) She also stopped by here a few years ago, and my daughter got to meet her, but I was off somewhere doing something. She made it through nursing school, I'm sure. Miss Piggy, yes, that's the one who wanted to start a garden center. Her name was Sharon.

Was it Vinh, the young boy I mentioned whom we were looking for? He was Vietnamese-American and he went missing because he was deep into schoolwork and wanted to succeed.

Thanks Marda, yes it was Ruth K. I was in her beautiful Victorian home as well. It was night and I missed her rose garden, but had to pick my tongue off the floor when I saw her antiques. LOL.

How could anyone forget Marie? I have a bee smoker she gave me. I knew immediately what it was but haven't smoked a bee yet. LOL.

Then there was Matt, our Seattle area teen whom we were afraid got washed over a hillside during Seattle's mudslides one very bad January. I finally tracked down a phone number and called and spoked to his mother who told me his computer had been on the fritz, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Dorie was our first poster when Spike opened the Party. I stumbled in about a month later. Zin was Don~Z - when I returned here after a long absence, at first I thought you was him, Don. But after two whole posts went by with no mention of either zinfandael or bonsai, I knew you were someone else altogether.

Who was it that admitted to losing her panties in the middle of the street during a "most embarrassing moments" thread? Started with a "G?"

BF and Liz. Beautiful love story. Beautiful wedding. Such a shame Sept. 11 happened only 2 months earlier and made so many people afraid to fly - they missed out on a magnificent event. (Didn't scare me away, though!)

So many others... Doug from Canada. Skip from Minnesota (he and Robert had a running joke about a dead beaver on an organ). Barbara from Michigan. I could go on and on, but I'd be late for work.

Then there was of course G'ann ( is that who you mean,Kim?) and that crazy humor of hers with all her cats on the mountain,Sally Ann who was able to get to the nitty gritty of things in a mini second,and who is no longer with us, and so many others. It's fun thinking back to the early days of the GP when the idea of forums was fairly new, and cyber friends almost unheard of. It was like stepping onto a new planet. To me the amazing thing is that some of you are still here and probably will be for as long as you are able and even if IVillage folds its tent and goes home,would all seek each other out in some way.

Kim, Yes! Matt was the kid we were all worried about. And G'Ann! Didn't her mountain catch on fire & she stayed on line posting about the fire's progress?

What Marda says: finding cyberpals was newly discovered territory a decade ago and the connections we now take for granted (see Andie's quote and our groans when our 'puter goes down even for a day) were a surprise every time.

Thanks for mentioning Dicken, Sheila; I was trying to think of his name the last time I visitsed this thread--he was a great guy, wasn't he? We all mourned his passing.

How nice that we remember all these good folks with such fondness.