Tales From the Loop

A Cloud of Smoke  (Leslie, Mike K, Thomas, Rezin) Wednesday, Dec 31, 1986 : With mom and dad off to a New Year’s party, Frank invites the other kids over to play with his trainset that is obviously a birthday present for next week. Frank, 13yo Computer Geek (Thomas): spent the morning in his room, scanning his computer network and found a backdoor access to the University of California’s servers. He hoped to find computer games to download for his own play. Afterwards, he went bike riding with Gylin and Johnny. Lisa, 14yo Bookworm (Leslie): spent the morning working with her father at his appliance repair shop (his second career after quitting the Loop). But mom stayed on at the Loop as an accountant. After work, Lisa rode off to hassle Gylin at the Dream Shop Video Store . Johnny Fire, 14yo Rocker (Mike K): with parts bought over the months from Radio Shack, Johnny called Frank to help build “my soundboard so I can record...

A Snowball’s Chance (Nell, Jan, Ravn. Robert had to bail out due to family issues) Monday, 31 Dec, 1986 - Holiday break with wet snow blanketing the ground as the kids head to their Pierson Salvage hangout to chat about their best Christmas gift. Janine, 13yo Hick (Nell): as the only girl in the family, with 2 annoying older brothers, Janine stayed busy doing chores around the farm. In her free time, she’d check on her ailing grandfather who wouldn’t admit himself sick. But she also used that free time to craft (Tinker) a gift for herself: a catapult she used to entertain gramps. “Special delivery” was the forewarning as she slung a bag of chips towards gramps. Tommy, 11yo Weirdo (Jan): he sighed as he checked himself out in the mirror- thin as a skeleton. He’d swear he could see his rib bones. He ran his hand thru his untamed blonde hair- an uneven mess considering he cut his own hair. Sitting in the attic at his work bench, Tommy add...