Yes but I was referring to "email him ... [in 1986]" and wondering about what he meant by "email" exactly in 1986...
If you were connected to usenet, you could send emails, also delivered by uucp.
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc976 (Feb 1986, but it mostly sets out as standards the practices that are already widely in place).
Indeed, RFC977 (1986) quotes a 1985 message from someone on unitek (a uucp node) requesting a reply by email (while the word "mail" was more often used before this):
Date: 25 Sep 85 23:51:52 GMT
Reply-To: [email protected] (Hon-Man Wong)
Distribution: net.all
Organization: Unitek Technologies Corporation
Lines: 12
...
Please reply by E-mail. Thanks in advance.
I can't exactly recall if we called it "e-mail" at the time or "mail". I do recall emailing in probably 1985; I recall distinctly setting up a cute multi-line graphic "you have mail" shell notifier when I was primarily dialing in on an HP-110 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_110 ) with the 16 line display, it was a loaner because the 24 line Plus model was out in 1985 and everyone wanted that one.
It was a lot of bang paths, where you'd list your e-mail address from a pretty well known location, like "hpfcla!hpilsb!linsomniac" and the sender would have to know or use trial and error to say "I bet ihnp4 can reach hpfcla.
You know those viral videos of kids tossing a ball the hits a pot that bounces over to a pan that bounces to another pot then to a kettle then into a cup? That's what sending e-mail was like back then. At least via UUCP.
<<It was a lot of bang paths, where you'd list your e-mail address from a pretty well known location, like "hpfcla!hpilsb!linsomniac" and the sender would have to know or use trial and error to say "I bet ihnp4 can reach hpfcla.>>
I remember that my brother at Bell Labs had an address with bangs. He was working on System V stream drivers. For me, actual "email" started when we had DNS routing ad could email --or talk to-- [email protected] ... before I don't actually recall how I exchanged emails with my brother at Bell Labs. It's that period of time that I'm trying to reconstruct, around 1987 early 1988, when I immigrated to the U.S. (from UK... now back in UK as of last year)