6. What led me to the phone/computer hacking world of the 1980s?

A) I met an Aspie-type kid at a summer camp who everone made fun of, and I was the only one nice to him. He eventually told me about computer bulletin boards and phone hacking, and it sounded exciting to me.

B) I watched WarGames, convinced my parents to buy me a computer and modem, and immediately went to look for the hacking community.

C) After hearing that phone hackers could dial "900" and "976" pay-per-call numbers for free, I obsessively seeked out how to do this.

D) I accidentally dialed a wrong number, ended up on a free area party line, and met some other kids who were into phone hacking.
I was sent to a Jewish summer camp in 1985, which traveled around central California and we camped at various sites.

"Steven" was a very eccentric kid a few years older than me, and everyone made fun of him. I felt bad for Steven and never joined the other kids taunting him, and in fact I found him somewhat interesting and quirky, so I started talking to him. Thinking back, it's almost 100% that Steven had/has Asperger's.

Steven told me about computer bulletin boards (BBSes), and how he was also part of the phone hacking world. All of this seemed cool and really exciting to me. I already knew how to program in BASIC and loved computers, but didn't have a modem, nor did I know anything about this crazy online world he described.

The other kids at camp liked me enough not to pick on me despite my budding friendship with Steven, but I also didn't quite have the balls to come back at the other kids picking on him. However, I did go as far as asking some of the meaner kids to back off with bugging him, and I had some success there.

When I got home, I begged my mom to buy me a modem. She bought one several months later for my birthday. From there, I found the computer/phone hacking community, and became part of that, as well.

I stayed moderate friends with Steven and visited him a few times over the next 2 years, but we never got that close, and some things about him got to annoy me. He was a bit too much of a goody two shoes for my taste. We never had any falling out, but we just faded away and weren't communicating anymore after I was about 16.

Correct answer: A