The universe may have started with a Big Bang. However, the way we communicate with friends on the internet had a more humble beginning. The use of a computer to connect with people all over the world didn’t start in a chat room or on something called e-mail. It began in the video game industry in malls around the world and to a lesser extent home use. While millions of people around the world were worried about surviving in games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Tetris a company known as Control Video Corporation or CVC opened the world to the concept of downloading games from your home telephone lines for a small fee. For the first time, you didn’t have to go to the mall with a bag of quarters. You could download video games from your telephone line for a small fee on your new Atari 2600 computer.

The concept of downloading something off a phone line to a computer was way ahead of its time. One of its employees, a marketing pro named Steve Case, jumped in when CVC collapsed and in 1985 started the company called Quantum Computer services. Initially it provided online services only for the Commodore 64. It offered e-mail, forums and multiplayer games features that would eventually become part of the AOL package.

In 1989, Quantum rebranded as America Online. AOL was planning to reach a higher, larger audience than just the Commodore 64 users. Realizing there were other Software versions for the Internet the company launched a Windows compatible version to millions of PC users in 1991. It attracted a substantial portion of the internet newcomers.

It turned out to be the Golden Age of what was now called AOL. America Online. AOL in the 1990s featured e-mail, chat rooms and a message board. When you did get e-mail, a voice told you “You’ve got mail”.  All for only $19.95 a month. You could surf for hours without worrying about running up a large charge.

In 1997 AOL swallowed up CompuServe, one of its main competitors, and by 1999 it had over 18,000,000 subscribers. AOL also bought MapQuest the first workable online mapping service to get you from here to there. AOL was the largest internet service provider in the United States. Its CD, compact disc, or CD’s, were mailed to millions of people around the world and became a collector’s item. AOL soon reached its dominant point in 2000. It merged with media giant Time Warner in a deal valued at $165 billion, then the largest corporate merger in the United States business history.

Experts in the new media saw the beginning of the end for AOL when broadband Internet replaced dial-up. If you were alive at that time, you can still hear the grinding noises as your system tried to get your phone line to dial you up and get you on the Internet. I remember setting my parents up with internet service. They could e-mail and enter a chat room with people. The downside was our house had only one phone line.  It was nearly impossible to pick up a phone and call them because one of them was on the computer on that one phone line.

For millions of Americans hearing that voice telling you’ve got mail brings back fond memories. It was their first internet memory announcing to the world that you went online. AOL also helped navigate newcomers through the process of instant messaging known in today’s lingo as texting.

Those of us who remember hearing the “You’ve Got Mail” greeting can also vividly remember the grinding sound of those dial-up services. But here’s a little-known fact. A voice-over actor named Elwood Edwards was paid $200 to record this, the then non-iconic reading “You’ve got Mail.” Edwards used a home cassette tape recorder in his living room. Forty years later. It’s still in use!

Edward’s voice was so recognizable he was hired to record more greetings for the company, including “welcome,” “You’ve got pictures,” “You’ve got voicemail,” “files done,” and “goodbye.” He passed away in 2024, but his voice lives on in the Internet.

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.