no searching on facebook or twitter for me, my love is lost in Holidex,

no searching on facebook or twitter for me, my love is lost in Holidex,

fiction
edward w pritchard

Before facebook, before twitter, way back in 1971, us working nights for the Holiday Inns, clandestinely chatted by Holidex, the company's state of the art reservation system. Clicking away over the wires, then clattering loudly as it printed to large rolls of print paper bored fellow night auditors would send me messages here in Akron from exotic locations like Santa Fe, New Mexico or North Chico, California.

Sometimes when my work was done, late after the bar closed I would sit by the pool and look at the stars and think grand thoughts.  After, returning to duty at the front desk I always watched for messages from Lucinda, "hippy girl"  of Rochester New York.

Three times Lucinda spammed me with questions in July of 1971 and three times I blathered back to her.
On our second chat after I asked her what her favorite kind of wine was Lucinda asked me some questions about Iago from the Merchant of Venice for her Freshman English class. Later Mr Janicus, district manager Holiday Inns of New York sent me a cease and desist edict not to use Holidex for person business per Holidex manual page 24 section 4.

Sometimes now forty years later very late at night  I look on the internet for information on Lucinda, " hippy girl" of Rochester New York, but it's hard to find anything relevant since I never caught her last name.
end