As a Canadian I started off with an ATI 9600 etc/e about 12 years ago. Used that along with Procomm plus to reach a bulletin board in Vancouver.
Still use a number of modems to this day to remotely dial into my machine at home because my ISP blocks the default ports for everything "for my safety and security" but I'm particularly fond of the Hayes series in that fancy metal enclosure.

I also find amusement from time to time that even though I'm on ADSL now, my ISP still has PPP indial numbers so I can still connect anywhere to the internet so long as I know the local number and my old username/password.