Wow.. the memories of old. I remember using a 14.4 baud modem to connect either to the local BBS or to the local small internet provider (I didn't like any of them large AOL/Compuserve conglamorate crap). When I got onto IRC, I originally used mittens only to discover that some other guy had "mittens" as his handle on IRC so I became MsMittens, registered it as a domain. I originally got that for free in 1996 and I still have to this day.
I remember usenet, gophers, WAIS, the world wide "weeeb" (anyone remember that commercial??), ICQ, etc.. They hadn't gotten the browser yet for Macs but they were coming out soon.