Joybubbles

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Joybubbles (born May 25, 1949 as Joe Engressia in Richmond, Virginia, USA) was an early phone phreak. Born blind, he became interested in telephones at age four. Being gifted with perfect pitch, he was able to whistle 2600 Hz into a telephone (see Blue box).

A student at the University of South Florida in the late 1960s, he was given the nickname "Whistler" due to his ability to place free long-distance phonecalls with his whistle. He was disciplined by the University early on, but after graduating his studies in philosophy and moving to Tennessee, law enforcement raided his house; he was charged with malicious mischief and given a suspended sentence and quickly abandoned phreaking, although he can still whistle 2600 Hz to this day.

Sexually abused as a child by one of his teachers, a nun, Joybubbles reverted to his childhood in May of 1988, and has remained there ever since, insisting that he is five years old. He legally changed his name to Joybubbles in 1991 claiming he wanted to put his past, specifically the abuse, behind him.

Joybubbles currently lives in Minneapolis, living off his Social Security disability pension and a job as a test subject for scent-intensity research. He is an ordained minister of his own church of Eternal Childhood, and runs a one-man nonprofit support organization for people rediscovering and reexperiencing childhood, called We Won’t Grow Up. He tries to remain an active member of the children's community around his home, giving readings at the local library and setting up phonecalls to terminally ill children around the world. He often contributes to the Bulletin Board section of the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper.

An avid fan of Mister Rogers, Joybubbles was mentioned in a November 1998 Esquire magazine article about children's television host Fred Rogers. Earlier that year, Joybubbles traveled to the University of Pittsburgh's Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Archives and watched (listened to) several hundred episodes over a span of six weeks.^[1]

The movie Sneakers had a character named Whistler that seemed to combine traits of both Joybubbles and John Draper.

Joybubbles runs a weekly telephone story line called "Stories and Stuff." The numbers are +1 206-FEELING (+1 206 333-5464), +1 612-813-1212, and +1 773-572-3109. Stories and Stuff is usually updated on the weekend.

In the early 1980's he ran a phone line called the Zzzyzzerific(sp?) Funline which had the distinction of being the very last entry in the phone book. During the zzzyzzzerific funline days he would go on various rants about how much he loved Valleyfair amusement park and would also regularly play and discuss "Up With People".