Facebook: 1990s style
No, I’m still not on Facebook (except for this “fan” page that someone created for me).
But I was once *IN* Facebook (and I have the pics to prove it).
Way back in 1996, when I was a freshman at Guilford College, there was an actual booklet — printed on actual paper — called “the facebook.” Here’s what the cover looked like:
It was literally a book of faces of all the freshmen. The way it worked was…we’d all been asked to mail in head shots of ourselves months in advance, and then everybody received one of these facebooks during orientation. I remember studying mine for hours. I tried to learn all the names and faces so that I’d recognize other freshmen around campus and be able to strike up conversations more easily. It worked. I made some great connections (wink, wink) with people during the first week of school.
Here’s what the inside cover of my facebook said:
Adorable, yes. We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, here’s another look at a couple different pages inside the book:
I felt very welcomed. Don McNemar was the president of the college, and since this was a Quaker institution (Quakers all go by their first names because they don’t believe that there should be a hierarchy of power), he was simply “Don” to me. Sue Keith, pictured on the page up above on the right, was my academic advisor. She was, quite simply, the best.
That brings us to the main feature of the facebook: the faces. Here’s the page with my photo:
See that guy in the top row named Will Dodson? He was a crazy mutha — one of those dudes who just didn’t give a f*ck. He was my ’round-the-corner neighbor in the dorm. We were great friends. We’re still in touch, in fact. He once got really drunk and chased me around the dorm with a machete. I forget why. I think it’s because I was blasting a Bon Jovi song. (Might’ve been “You Give Love a Bad Name.”) He didn’t like Bon Jovi. Fair enough.
Marjorie Hall was also really cool. Sara Hahnel? Not so much. And what about me? I don’t know what I was. But I can tell you this: that really IS my hair. I don’t have any now, but back in the day, oh yeah.
Here’s a close-up of the bottom of the page:
See what it says underneath my name? There’s my hometown (New York, NY), my two biggest interests (Baseball, People), my high school (Columbia Prep, which I hated), and my major (Undecided). Some things never change.
If you’re wondering why I haven’t officially joined the 2010 version of Facebook, check out the FAQs on my web site and read the big-long paragraph at the bottom. Seriously, to hell with it. I’m so “special” that I went straight from MySpace to Twitter.
(If you click that Twitter link, you’ll see that I post updates there that you won’t find here. Ha-HAAA!!! Wow, it’s 4:37am. I should probably start thinking about going to bed.)
Zack Hample
Zack,
Joshua Feldstein in page 1. What do you call that hair do. Chia Hair?
lol,
Mike in Detroit
hope you saw the comment that a particular “ballhawk” (not that he’s any good) posted on that fan page on Nov. 6 2009.
yankeehater- isnt there a proverb that goes something like forgive and forget? just sayin.
and zack, shouldnt guilford be capitalized in the (second picture)
MIKE-
Seriously, I don’t know WHAT is going on in that pic.
YANKEEHATER626-
Didn’t notice. Don’t care. As a general rule, I never read comments about myself anywhere but here.
PUCK COLLECTOR-
Technically, yes, but it looks like all the letters on that page are lowercase on purpose, you know, as if that’s the style.
Interesting, I too was a freshman at a small’ish private school and we had a very, very, very similar “facebook.” It wasn’t literally called the “facebook.” But same exact set up. Four freshmen per row, each with two “interests,” home town, high school and major listed in the same format. Maybe its a somewhat standardized product that colleges can purchase from a common distributor. Why are the people laying in a “Q” on the cover?
-Todd
http://cookandsonbats.mlblogs.com
Cool…and not surprising that you had the same thing. The “Q” is for Quaker.
I figured out it was probably for Quaker about 10 seconds after hitting “submit” on my comment. I guess I’m about 10 second slow in the brain tonight.
These things happen.