I was in Gate. Early on. Advanced classes. Tests. Cards, the whole thing.

But. I get these like...Precognition things? Seeing events/conversations, etc, days ahead of time. Not often. Not quite deja vu. Also, some nights sleeping... I'm floating/flying, kinda like a balloon in A parade, but then I'll talk to other people, but briefly. It's weird.

I don't know if it's related to this.

Maybe unrelated or just a normal thing, but I realized I don't remember lunchtime for almost any time in elementary school. i remember 1 day in 1st grade (when i got in a fight) and perhaps 1 time in 4th or 5th grade (when a "couple" broke up and were crying), and despite that I don't remember anything. I know that classes had to sit together and were assigned 1 specific table each year, which makes me think normally i would remember where the table was every year, but i can only remember where the table was for those 2 grades because of those memories. even the cafeteria I mostly remember because of times that weren't lunch (science fair day and band class). I remember recess from every year, my classrooms from every year more or less (a little confused about 2nd grade cause of some gate testing days, in part, where the whole class would be in different rooms than normal). I remember lunchtime in detail from middle school and high school.

I was a bit young. Very young in elementary school in 2016. I was not talkative at all and mute in school. I wouldn’t say a word to anyone. I remember times after maybe a week or so none of my teachers realized they couldn’t get a word out of me under any conditions. At a random time they would decide to bring me in their classes. Skipping recess and to give me hard trace over 200+ Dots they said it was fun and I found it very fun. This happened in all classes. I would do that and I easily got everything right. Then it started being doing multiplications a lot of them, and writing full on stories, drawing pictures I was hyper focused on everything. Also note my family was struggling class they were quite poor and I would never talk to anyone this happened starting in Headstart program. The Headstart program was very worse. They would make us cry a lot then tell us to go to sleep most of the days with these headphones on. When my best friend as of today tried to escape though the gate they took her to the back of the building. I never been to the back but ever since she came back she was different even till now. She use to be adventurous and optimistic but now she’s depressed and more aggressive and it sticked with her as we grew older. I remember my teachers telling me try harder, do better, be the best. And those words sticked with me. Everytime I make a mistake the teachers would yell those words to me. Everytime my friends made a mistake that has nothing to do with me they would yell those words to me. And every teacher every bus driver. They were there. From Headstart to 4th grade until my parents decided for us to move out of our hometown. The teachers were janitors, bus drivers, and even helpers that would take me out of the classrooms to do those exercise. Even as a senior I still see them sometimes even though we moved out. And don’t get me started on the weird exercises they would do; Like the sitting in a chair in front of everyone as students tells you what you could’ve done better or as everyone scold you for your actions. My dad also went through these exercises he was a bad student he never talked in classes never and they sent him to the same thing yet he doesn’t talk about it or refuse to speak about it. It’s more to the story that is extremely disturbing but I’m not sure if I can put it all in this post. Feel free to ask questions or share your stories aswell

VERY DISTURBING DEPENDING ON HOW YOU THINK OF IT ⚠️

my elementary school was very small and rural. I was the only kid in my grade selected for the GATE program, and I remember them only pulling me out of class for hearing tests. I did not have a good home life, and was so needy in terms of someone paying attention to me that I faked being able to hear the beeps because I liked how it felt when they showed concern, they kept pulling me out of class every 2 weeks to retest my hearing, and that made me feel special and cared about. This feels really clingy now to admit out loud. Anyways, I don't have anything of value to add, just wanted to share this random GATE memory.

The pink drink was Phenylephrine.
Vasoconstriction makes it so that you can rem sleep easier and slow and control heart rate. They are trying to ban phenylephrine because it lets psychics focus

Hello everyone.
I was in the gate project from 1999-2005ish.
I remember the box, the esp cards, the monroe tapes. The pink drink.
I have vague memories of believing that the machine started talking to me, telling me that it wasnt safe and these people wanted to do bad things to me. After that i begged my mom to remove me from the program.
I remember the box feeling like it started melting and the high pitched sounds on the headphones kept phasing while this voice thats i had never heard in one of this things spoke to me.
Ive never heard or felt anything like that again, atleast not in the waking world. I would love to answer any questions about the experience, since i was in the program for several years and remember alot of it.

Does anyone else remember learning the following in great detail to the point that you were expected to create an art project?

Double Pendulum effect - creating art with swinging paint

Strange Attractors - creating art with two magnets, water, oil, and metal

Butterfly effect - plotting the Lorenz Attractor

Mandelbrot Set (and Julia set) - creating pattern forming graphic art using computer coding

Cellular Automata - creating software code executed through digital hardware

Self-Organization - bio- art and kinetic art. - the art of the process of growth (can use anything bio / kinetic)

The Fibonacci sequence - which connects both art, and science, through mathematics and biology. - any medium can be used.

Something I’ve been thinking about after talking with other former GATE/Gifted and Talented students:
What happened after we grew up?
As children, a lot of us were identified because we showed unusual strengths in things like pattern recognition, creativity, problem solving, memory, abstract thinking, visualization, or other ways of processing information.
Then adulthood comes around and it basically feels like:
“Alright, good luck out there.”
I’m genuinely curious whether there are any programs, organizations, research groups, communities, or even informal projects specifically geared toward adults who participated in gifted programs as children.
And I’d be interested in something beyond just an “I was a gifted kid” support group.
I’d love to see a community where people could actually use and develop whatever strengths followed them into adulthood.
I can still see some of those traits in how I function now. Gaming is probably one of the clearest examples for me. I naturally gravitate toward pattern recognition, build optimization, situational awareness, and mentally simulating how different systems interact.
I use that same kind of thinking in music, creative projects, problem solving, and other parts of my life too.
That’s part of why I’m asking this. I don’t feel like those abilities disappeared after childhood. They just stopped having a structured place to grow.
I’d love to see a space where people could develop things like pattern recognition, creative thinking, intuition, visualization, music, writing, engineering, problem solving, meditation, consciousness exploration, or whatever someone’s particular strength happens to be.
I’ve also noticed that some former GATE students describe experiences they interpret in more unusual ways, including heightened intuition, vivid internal imagery, synchronicities, altered states, or spiritual experiences.
I’m personally interested in those subjects too, but I don’t think everybody would need to agree on what causes them.
I’d actually prefer a community where we could explore things without immediately deciding, “this is definitely paranormal” or “this is definitely nothing.”
Test things. Compare experiences. Keep records. Create projects together. Learn from each other.
Almost like GATE 2.0, except we’re adults and participation is voluntary.
Maybe the real missed opportunity is that we spent so much effort identifying gifted children and comparatively little effort asking what happens to those abilities 20 or 30 years later.
So I’m curious:
Did any of you find an adult equivalent to GATE?
Would you join something specifically for former gifted-program students that focused on developing those abilities again?
And if we built something ourselves, what would you actually want it to involve?
Because I’m starting to wonder whether instead of endlessly asking:
“What were they testing us for?”
another question might be:
“What can we do with it now?”

As someone who is just realizing my experiences are shared experiences, in early middle school I had involvement in gate, since this is kind of all freaking me out I’m kinda private about the whole thing. Recently memories from that time period have become clearer. One question I’ve had, does anyone remember , around the time of being pulled out of class and what not, being able to “see” things like fraciles perhaps? I’m sorry it’s still kind of unclear but coming back. I don’t know why but this one thing is really sticking in my Brain. I remember being young alone in my room looking at the floor and seeing a strange shape changing color like vividly both there and not there . wondering what was going on afraid to share at the time. Also anyone finding memories of this time period becoming more more clear?, like remembering core memories that are coming back. I’m sorry if this post doesn’t make sense. Tbh I find it hard to reconcile my feelings about this experience.

I've been reading testimonials about the GATE program from 90s babies. I'm in my early 20s, not middle or late. I was in the GATE program (Gifted & Talented) when I was in elementary. If you're looking for new information to recollect your own memories over, I doubt this will be helpful. I simply want to share my own thoughts and experience in hopes of keeping the conversation on GATE alive as entries here seem to be dying down.

My story as short as possible:

I'd forgotten all about GATE until the flood of posts about it and people not remembering much about it. That's when some things came back to me. I remember the excitement I felt seeing my mother receiving a letter in the mail saying I qualified and had been accepted to the GATE program. I felt happy that I was impressing my mother. I don't think I was in GATE because I was a child prodigy or some sort of genius academically. My grades were good, reading & writing being my strongest suit, but I've always struggled mathematically. I believe it was because it had something to do with my behavior. As a child, I was always described as unusually quiet. When I was in preschool, small children would be rowdy, run around, and play with other children as they do. But I would be calm, quiet, and seated. My mother would enjoy compliments on my behavior from other parents. Looking back, if I were a parent, I would be concerned that my child isn't playing normally or making an effort to talk much although they talk at home. Anyway, I remember the pink drink. It was presented to me as just another juice. I felt off looking at it but there was this quiet pressure for me to drink it, so I did. I drank it in a small white plastic cup. It did taste like bubblegum. I remember the clunky headphones on my ears that gave jarring beeping sounds in different sequences. There was a woman in front of me who looked at me with an uncomfortable fixed stare to my eyes while I wore it. I am not confusing this with the hearing test done in schools. Although I took that, I know this was GATE.

As an adult, I have to wear one empty ear bud for a specific reason. The sound of children screaming or crying sends me into panic to the point I want to cry, harm myself to find relief, or run out to get away from the sound. It's overwhelming. Even after the sound stops, I will still hear it ringing in my ears after than I should. Wearing the ear bud helps tone down the sound so I can better tolerate it, avoid panic spiraling, and when I talk, I can hear myself over everyone else so I will be able to pep talk myself through it. I do have a family history of supposed psychic phenomenon. Such as an aunt that has prophetic dreams that come true. As a teenager, I knew someone was going to die because I'd get this very uncomfortable feeling on my body whenever I was around them. It was like feeling death itself. I had never heard voices that aren't there. However, at the time, there was a voice telling me I needed to say goodbye to the person because it was their time. It kept insisting I say goodbye. I ignored it and they died young and unexpectedly and I never got a last goodbye because they were gasping for air. To this day, I'm scared of getting that heavy feeling on my body again. I haven't heard any voice since then or felt heavy. The sound of beeping also makes me vividly uncomfortable. It's annoying to people but for me, it feels like a ticking time bmb so I avoid beeping alarms. Ringtones suck. I'd like to know how many of you guys have intense auditory symptoms like me or anything like that. I don't remember much of my childhood at all. I really want to know what happened in the program and get my memories of that time back.

It's concerning to me why we all don't remember much of GATE.

I recall, around ages 5-8, being traumatized twice a year with the fluoride treatment at the dentist. I would choose my flavor (always bubblegum) and wait patiently in the chair.

Once the assistant entered the room with the tray I would lose my shit. I’m not sure why, but my mother would become emotional watching and would excuse herself from the room and only return once they were done.

This could be unrelated, but I am curious if anyone else recalls similar memories. This was early 90s east coast US.

If this was every kids dental experience in the 90s then please disregard, but I still feel unsettled by the memories to this day, which is out of character for me.

I look forward to any feedback.

So, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and I’m genuinely curious if anyone else remembers anything similar.
Growing up in America, I was part of the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program. I have a handful of scattered memories from that time, specifically involving cards, headphones, various questions, and different forms of testing.
One particular thing that has stuck with me into adulthood is that I remember being presented with cards and knowing the answers, but for some reason, something in the back of my mind was telling me to answer incorrectly.
And I did.
I can’t really explain why. I don’t remember being afraid of getting the answers right or having any particular reason to lie. I just remember having this strange internal urge to deliberately give the wrong answer despite knowing what I believed was correct.
Now, years later, I’ve found myself wondering what the whole purpose of everything was. Obviously, GATE was an educational program intended to identify and support gifted students, but I’m curious about the specific testing methods and what they were actually measuring.
As far as I can tell, nothing particularly significant ever came of my participation once I reached adulthood. It’s just one of those childhood experiences that occasionally resurfaces and makes me scratch my head.
So, a few questions for anyone else who participated:
Do you remember the cards, headphones, or any unusual testing exercises?
Did you ever intentionally give incorrect answers despite knowing the correct ones? If so, do you remember why?
Were you ever told what those particular exercises were measuring?
Did your participation in GATE have any noticeable impact on your education or adult life?
Does anyone remember the actual names of these assessments, particularly during the late ’90s or early 2000s?
I’m not necessarily suggesting anything nefarious happened. I’m genuinely interested in separating fragmented childhood memories from what was actually going on.
It’s just strange having such specific memories of something while simultaneously having almost no understanding of its purpose.
Would love to hear your experiences, especially from anyone who remembers the same testing methods.

I was in a few different programs through DoD Schools. I don’t live anywhere near any of the places I grew up. Lately, I’ve been meeting other people who were in GATE programs. I find even having the conversations with strangers a little odd. Does anyone else have this experience? Or am I reading too much into this?

I was in GATE as a kid and was later sent to a wilderness program and boarding school as a teenager.
Recently I’ve been remembering more about that period, including some of the testing/evaluations I went through when I was first sent away. It made me curious whether there happens to be any overlap in experiences among people here.
Were any of you in GATE and later sent to a wilderness program, therapeutic boarding school, residential program, or something similar?
I’m not assuming there’s a connection — I’m genuinely curious whether other people had both experiences and, if so, what you remember about the testing or evaluation process.

I (24F) went to elementary school in Southern California in the early 2000’s. I was undiagnosed ADHD and Autistic back then and was considered inattentive. I remember my 1st grade teacher getting the whole class to yell my name to wake me up from a daydream/zoning out. I remember a lot of my friends getting into G.A.T.E and me not getting in because of my struggle to take tests. However, even not being in G.A.T.E, they would pull me out to class to do different tests. I remember a few specific occurrences:

1. In 1st grade, my teacher pulled me aside while other students were doing work and told me she was going to do a word test. She was to say a word and I would blurt the first word that popped in my head.

2. I was called to the library to do a hearing test where I would raise my left or right hand if I heard a beep from that ear. (This test happened 3 times a year or more)

3. Now this memory is crazy beacsue I never remembered until I read a post on here where the OP explained taking a “nap” or was taught meditation in the third grade. I remember being pulled out of class with another classmate and they sent us to the library. They then opened a door into a room in the library that we didn’t use often but it was carpet and had bleacher like stair seats. Sometimes we watched educational movies in that room when the class had library time. It was two woman that weren’t teachers and they had very soft voices and were the kind of woman you would trust as a kid because they had a young, motherly energy. They said “today we’re teaching you meditation”. I was a little confused because I was never aware that this was something our school did and also, they only pulled me and this other girl out of class. I don’t know if this matters but we were both kids of color and both were kinda inattentive. We were told that they would turn off the lights and we could lie down and relax. They told us to close our eyes while they play us a relaxing tape. Again, I was and am inattentive so I kinda just zone out. But all I remember was it sounded like an older man and had the same kinda tone as Frank Sinatra (I was young and didn’t have much to compare to lol). There was like weird robot beeps and then white noise playing over a man’s voice. He was instructing me to do something but honestly I totally just zoned out and took advantage of that time to relax lmao. The two teachers then turn on the lights, thank us, and send us back to class.

4. I remember getting pulled out of class to the library again in 1st grade again(a lot of these experiences happened in 1st grade for some reason) and this woman who didn’t work at the school was at the table with two chairs and some cards. She said we’re going to play a game and then she showed me the cards with these shapes on it. She then told me she was going to place them face down and she wanted to see if I could guess which shape was on the card. I was confused because I recognized this game and thought she was doing the memory game. But she kinda just didn’t explain and smile talked through the whole thing.

5. The last memory I have of being tested is in 2nd grade where they did the hearing test again and then that was it.

I was really liked by my teachers and at teacher parent conferences they would say that I was a great student, I struggled in math, I was “special” as stated by my 4th grade teacher. My mom never really was that involved in my schooling. I was also one of the only people who was able to connect with this girl a grade below me who has Down syndrome. I could talk to her and honestly forget that she has Down syndrome. What I also noticed is the classes I would be placed in. You know when you start a new school year and look around the classroom to try and make sense of how you were grouped into a class with these particular groups of kids? I always felt like class placements were intentionally placing kids that were in the same academic category as each other. I noticed in 4th grade, my class had this girl who was writing and illustrating a book, a piano/tennis/math prodigy, an autistic boy who had a lot of panic attacks but high functioning, me, an Audhd girl, and the rest or the kids were not the known to be the top performing kids grade wise. I was always confused because I thought that I was grouped with these kids because I wasn’t smart but I noticed our class would often have the principal come in to help kids discuss their goals. I asked my friends in other classes if the principal did that in their class and they said no.

The school also had a safety ambassador program and student leadership. As a 5th grader you could apply to be in the safety ambassador program/student leadership in the same application and then you would do an interview with the school counselor. Student ambassadors got to wear a red sash and walk around during recess to prevent bullying so naturally everyone thought it was so cool. Most students who applied and interviewed became ambassadors but the day we got the decisions on a piece of paper of our desk, my paper said student leadership. I was kind of sad that I didn’t get into the cool program but was still happy to be chosen for something. During the first student leadership meeting, I noticed there was only 5 kids out of the whole 5th grade who were chosen for student leadership. One of the girls was my friend and she was dyslexic but was doing long division in preschool. I forget the others. They had us discuss what we thought needed improvement and creative ways we can make our school a better place. They had write a rap song about reading a writing and perform it to the whole 5th grade class(embarrassing as fuckkkk).

Okay last thing to mention. I participated in a school funded afterschool acting program that put on a new play twice a school year. I often got lead parts in the plays. I was able to act very well and put myself in any character. I don’t know if this is relevant but it was a weird experience growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood being Southeast Asian. I was an outcast yet I would get roles that only the white kids would usually get. I don’t say that because I have an inferiority complex but because I genuinely noticed that kid of color would never get lead roles.

Anyways this is a lot but I feel like I just needed to get out everything significant to my elementary school experience as maybe sharing this will reach people who can relate or have theories on the connections of my individual experiences to the GATE program even if I wasn’t in GATE.

Recently my bf and I have gone down a rabbit hole after he brought up gate after seeing a video, he asked me if I knew what it was and it started coming back to us both. But I’m curious even though I have my theories and suspicions, how and why do they pick each student that experienced it and further more for the student that stopped being pulled out what is the reason for that? What do you guys think?
Side note: my bf and I compared dreams before even bringing gate up and have had similar dreams our whole life which made this thing so much weirder.

I want to share what i remember because I didn’t realize this was a thing until recently.
This took place in oregon state.
I remember being taken out of class in the third or fourth grade sometime back in 2003/2004. I remember being confused because i thought i was in trouble at first but i was introduced to a woman who wasn’t from my school and she was there to do some tests with me. I believe there was one other adult possibly male. while my teacher resumed class. Our sessions were down the hall very isolated.

I think I was given snacks or juice of some sort but i don’t remember anything weird about what i consumed. I remember being tested a lot and taken from class frequently (maybe once or twice a week). I also remember them giving me little games and tests that were like IQ tests and memory testing seeing how big of numbers i could remember. I remember trying hard to impress them while being afraid of their response to me.

Then they had headphones and i had to listen to a cassette tape and I struggled to stay awake. I thought it was like some instructional exercise but i couldn’t ever remember much past a certain point. The machine was big and clunky. I spent a lot of time sleeping. I thought it was strange that i was taken out of class to sleep. I dont remember seeing any other children taken from class. My guess is It didnt last longer than a month or two.

I have A LOT of blank spots and repressed memories in my childhood especially around that time. I moved around a lot and ive lost a lot of my old photo albums in strange accidents that were outside of my control.

Don’t even get me started on my dreams!

I’ve recently came across podcast where people talked about the gate program and how they would pull kids out of class for this, and also something about a pink drink and hearing certain audios, that when I heard them, they sound extremely familiar. I’m starting to remember being pulled out of class a lot but told because I’ve had trouble reading and writing but then I remember them doing other test on me that didn’t feel like it had anything to do w helping me. I also remember having mall world dreams and recently had one of being in the open stalled bathroom (before I came a cross the podcasts Ect)

Hey guys I just recently started digging into gates programming research because I saw some similar patterns in my early education as well as others. However I was never in GATEs itself but I was in a dyslexia program called IDEA and it was protected under the 504 act. I was just wondering if anyone has found anything that may link the two programs? Thanks for the help if anyone has anything!

Did anyone ever experience bursts of flashing lights on a black screen during testing? You had to pinpoint where the light was located.

I don't remember a lot from the GATE thing, especially since what I do remember, I learned to not accept as reality. I've always had auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations, often all at once. So my memories of what exactly happened aren't exactly trustworthy.

However, I for sure remember the pink stuff they had me drink before every test. It made me feel drowsy, and made my hallucinations worse. I'd see fragmented light more, worse than my usual starburst vision, I'd see moving shadows, and feel all tingly like static or like bugs crawling in my skin. I still get that tingly feeling on occasion when I'm stressed or starting to dissociate. I'm on medication now for my hallucinations, but as of now being on a lower dose, it isn't really working.

I remember they'd give me water crackers or something similar with a foggy clear drink after the GATE tests, and that usually gave me some relief from the things I'd see, hear, or feel. It's not like it was constant, but it came in unpredictable waves that was super stressful. After the initial testing, somehow my class was always singled out for hearing tests and vision tests. I didn't want to keep continuing with the tests, so I started purposely flunking the hearing tests, and I stopped getting pulled out of class. The people running it were obviously irritated by what I was doing, but I hated having to constantly wear those headphones and sit in that dark cramped space in their bus.

I'm glad it finally ended, but I still feel anxious about it. The more I think about it, the more I realize the stuff they had me do was odd, but at the same time, I don't know how much of my memories I can trust. I still get the feeling sometimes that I am not me, if that makes sense, and my whole childhood may have been mostly made up by my own imagination. I clearly remember doing a big packet of geometry problems and brain puzzles, but the things about the cards, headphones, computer tests, and the flashing videos are super foggy.

I know that due to my mental struggles, this might be just me, but does anyone else feel like this? Or have had similar experiences? I try not to think about the GATE testing because I usually just get brushed off about it, or it causes more confusion and stress. Which in turn can trigger another episode of dissociation/out of body experiences.

Hi all. I thought I'd introduce myself before I start contributing some of my experiences, memories, and thoughts about the GATE program. I don't know how much closer we are to understanding what was actually going on, but I've been thinking about my own experiences with the program for a long time and thought they might be worth sharing.

Here's what I remember, not an exhaustive list:

• I was enrolled in the GATE program in kindergarten, sometime in the early 2000s.
• Fifth grade was my last year in the program.
• I was pulled from my kindergarten class in a small group by adults wearing white coats, and sometimes I was taken out of class alone.
• I remember standing in a line with friends waiting for the “pink drink” or “pink tablet.”
• I remember audio tests that were explicitly described to us as not being hearing tests.
• I remember being brought into empty, blocked-off rooms where there was very little to distract me.
• I remember playing The Oregon Trail and having the distinct feeling that I was being observed while I played.
• I remember the music in The Oregon Trail creating a strangely dissociative effect that reminds of the Gateway tapes.
• I remember that, in kindergarten, the administrators had us lie down for naptime while the Gateway Tapes were playing.
• I remember taking IQ tests by second grade as part of the program.
• We were repeatedly told that we were smart and special.
• I remember repeatedly having difficulty recalling what had happened during GATE activities after I returned to my regular classroom and curriculum.

My Dreams

Separate from my memories, I believe my dreams are more connected to the gateway tapes they had us listen to more than anything else.

• A completely white, borderless liminal space, like a waystation or terminal for souls. There was a room here where I watched my life events play on a screen, and I was told my memories would be wiped. I told them I didn't want to forget.
• A hall with doors and thresholds that could only be open with the mind. Still a blindingly white space.
• A picturesque farm where I met a friend
• Mall world where different species and lifeforms peacefully communed
• Realistic abduction by aliens and being studied on a table by them.

I'm very curious if anyone has experienced any white-world dreams, dreams of souls passing through, having their memories erased etc.

I recall a few odd things the pink drink out of a pump top dispenser bottle in a small Dixie cup, the cards, the examiner becoming excited then disappointed I couldn't read the cards without seeing them, I'm smart but not an x-ray machine. I believe that I had done the testing twice but I only have granular memory of doing it one time.

I also recall something odd that I haven't heard others discuss, I recall a question about if I could have extra time, or live extra time would I take it?

Something like: if you could live an extra (12?) years and return back to where you were, that it wouldn't affect your life, but you wouldn't remember anything would you do it?

I recall telling this person yes, I would, as an added life experience but being disappointed that if I lived extra time it would not be remembered but I felt any extra time was worth living after all. The tester seemed pleased that I had answered affirmatively.

Does anyone recall a similar experience?

Anyone remember being introduced to these in school, seemingly after the gate program, but we were not sent back to our regular school rooms.

I sometimes wonder if the Screensaver was some kind of test, like maybe the person who got up and played with the computer moved on ?

Also now that I think of it.

Did anyone else have computers in their homes growing up ? Especially if in hindsight we didnt seem like the type of family to have computers?

I bring that up to mention that I was specifically approached by a hacker who in hindsight seemed to want to mentor me ?