Remembering the Good Ole’ Days
Remember the days when your house had only one telephone? It was attached to the wall and you only had to dial 5 digits to make a local phone call? Ours was in the kitchen and came with a long enough cord that you could reach the stove AND fridge. Amazing! There were only two area codes in Massachusetts back then (617 for eastern MA and 413 for western MA) and it was most exciting when that new feature, call-waiting, was introduced (even though it managed to confuse my parents to no end).
Well, those days are long gong. A local call now requires the memorization of ten digits, not five. We have overlapping area codes in the same parts of the state and you’re no longer relegated to the kitchen to make a phone call (you can be in the car, on a train, out for a walk). Most people call this progress.
I call it hell.
I hate phones. I hate talking on phones. I hate the sound of telephones ringing. I hate listening to other peoples’ phone conversations. I don’t even have a home phone. But here’s the problem:
My cell phone contract is expiring on Monday. My current phone is a simple flip-phone (though, I must admit it overwhelmed me two years ago when I got it). Randy has offered to have me join his contract – which will only cost $10/month. A deal! But switching from Verizon to Cingular – I mean, “the new” AT&T – requires that I get a new phone. And not to sound like my 79 year old father, but they just don’t make them like they used to.
Since I hate speaking on the phone, I figured I wanted one that would be easier for text messaging (which, in itself, is something so high-tech compared to my childhood rotary dial phone). Randy picked one out for me and a Samsung Blackjack arrived in the mail this week. Oh, it sure is pretty. In the space of about 1 centimeter they’ve appeared to squeeze in practically an entire computer keyboard, monitor, and camera. The problem is I can barely find the numbers to place phone calls – they’re mixed in with the letters of the keyboard.
Randy says I just need to take my current address book (which is in an old-fashioned paper address book, thank you very much) and type it into Outlook Express. Then I’ll import the Outlook Express version into my cell phone. Then I won’t have to dial numbers, I’ll just have to search my database of phone numbers to place a call.
That’s progress?
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Just to be different I bought all old fashioned desk and wall phones for our home. Granted, our phone connection is over the internet now but when the phone rings, it’s a loud bell sound from the good ol’ days.
I’m with you, I hate talking on the phone. I’d rather IM people. Maybe I’ll IM you.
Ah, bravo fellow phone-o-phobe!! Ernestine is my nemesis, and you do know that Alex G. Bell agreed with us and wouldn’t have the damn thing in his laboratory – his wife had to walk down the hill from the house to get him when there was an important call…
When I was a kid, the phone wiring in Kingston was some of the oldest in the nation – within town we had only to dial FOUR digits, not even five….
Then again, I love the story an old friend of my mother’s tells about being a little girl in an even smaller town a bit inland. When she was three or so, she could pick up the party-line phone – this must’ve been ca. 1940 – and say to the operator “Do you know where my Mommy is?” – and not only did the operator know exactly who she was, but she DID know where her Mommy was….
Maybe really, really high-tech will bring this kinda thing back to us…of course it’ll be like “Minority Report” and we’ll have zero privacy…
I hate cell phones, and their user’s lack of etiquette. I recently heard one ring at a memorial service, then another at a small play, with an audience of about 20 people. All I can do is give these cell phone retards my best Bea Arthur style scowl. C’mon folks, leave the phone at home, you’re just not that important.
They’re just a necessary evil…. and look,, your AMAzING man is a techno god who got you an oh-what-a-deal deal and a pretty phone. I bet he’ll help you with the whole import dealio.
Or maybe he can search slickdeals and find you a nice carrier pigeon. 🙂