I also taught myself HTML around 95 or 96. I think I even used one of the books the OP mentioned and used Notepad to write my source. I knew one dude who ran a

I also taught myself HTML around 95 or 96. I think I even used one of the books the OP mentioned and used Notepad to write my source. I knew one dude who ran a local ISP and connected to it using a 14.4 baud modem (he might have ran the isp through his house). He also had a small web server where I can host my website. I had all sorts of fancy stuff like marquees and blinking tags. I think I even used a table to lay out certain graphics and text. Those were good times.