Edward, Enchanted
I first met Mike and Gretchen when I was 18 and came in to the Cafe via my volunteer work with TheFoundry, which was Speakeasy’s technology education venture.
I first met Mike and Gretchen when I was 18 and came in to the Cafe via my volunteer work with TheFoundry, which was Speakeasy’s technology education venture.
I had always been a super-fan, lived in Ballard, came to Belltown all the time, used the terminals, very tech-savvy and tech-happy.
At the young age of 15 I attended an alternative school by the name of Puget Sound Community School (PSCS). I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the Speakeasy Cafe on a regular basis and attend various classes hosted there.
I have an intense romantic nostalgia for RAIN terminals. I was 17 when I moved to Seattle, and I really didn’t know anyone.
I asked to talk to the manager and this short, attractive, direct woman in cutoff jeans and a white v-necked t-shirt came out and asked me a few questions. I think I answered them.
Speakeasy was the focus of an article by the Christian Science Monitor in May 1996.
I loved my early days working weekend nights at the Speakeasy Cafe, behind the bar in a packed house. People came for great bands like Kultur Shock and The Tom Marriott Quartet.
When I moved to Seattle in early 1996, the Speakeasy had RAIN Mail terminals at the Allegro, among other places, with which you could get a shell account and explore the early Internet through e-mail and a Unix prompt.
I’ve been a bass player in a few Seattle bands over the years, and back in the day I used to have band practice in the dank basement below the world famous Rendezvous bar in Belltown.