Living History

Do you remember being on phone restriction? Oh come on, you know you're out there. Some of you are the reason I was on phone restriction.

I was thinking of my grandma. She died when she was 93 and I thought how amazing her life was. She lived through so much history. She came over to this country in the '20's, no such thing as television, etc. But then I thought, hey - I'm living through amazing times as well. The phone is a great example.

When I was younger, I had to walk to school up hill both ways in the snow. Sorry - I just had to throw that in. Actually, we had one phone in the kitchen and one phone in my mom's room. I was on the phone with my friends from the time I got home from school until the time I went to bed. Of course, this was before call waiting, call notes and all those things.

I remember one time I was on the phone with my friend in my parent's room. I guess my parents were calling and they kept getting a busy signal. I remember my dad storming through the house into that room and hanging up the phone. I don't think I was allowed to answer the phone for a year. This would have been when I was in junior high.

When we moved to Texas, we got this cool thing called call waiting. So, when I was on the phone, if someone was calling, it would make this beeping sound in my ear. I could put the person I was talking to on hold and answer the other line. Man! That would have saved me so much heartache.

When I got a job while in high school, I saved up enough money so that I could buy my own phone for my room. I had a phone jack but phones were expensive. When I had the phone in my room, I thought I was queen of the world. Then I invested in something called an answering machine. I'd never miss another call, right?

When I first moved out, they came up with cordless phones. They were huge phones with no cords. Instead they had antennas. BUT - you could walk around your house and talk on the phone and not get tangled up in the wires. That was cool because it didn't matter where the phone jack was, you could take the handset anywhere.

Shortly after that, they came up with this thing called caller id. Remember when you'd answer the phone and it was someone you didn't want to talk to? After answering machines came out, you'd let the machine get it - just in case but some times people would just hang up. Now we had caller id. This would flash the number of the person calling. If I didn't recognize the number, I wouldn't answer. It was a great way to avoid all those weirdo people that would stalk you! Amazing.

When I was in college, I dated a guy that had a phone in his car. That was cool. He could order pizza on the way home from work and meet the pizza guy at the door. It was REALLY expensive to make a call, though. On one or two rare occasions, he'd let me use the phone. It was a real novelty.

When I got out of college, they had these cool things called cell phones. They were the size of a brick but they could fit in your purse. You could call people no matter where you where. It was so cool! It cost about fifty cents a minute but if you called after 7 pm, it was only two cents a minute. AND, you could call long distance for only two cents a minute after 7pm. If only I'd had that when we moved here.

I recently purchased an iPhone. This phone is very slim. Not only can I make calls, I can take pictures (still photos and movies), I can record conversations, I can make notes, I can check my email (which is a whole different conversation), I can text people (instant message!) and I can access the Internet. OH! and I can have my entire music collection loaded in there too. It's all on one little hand held device.

My nephew is 7. He thinks he needs a cell phone. My sister said, "who are you gonna call?" He said, "Tanner". Tanner lives next door to them. She told him he could just walk next door and talk to Tanner.

My other nephew is 14 and he has a cell phone. I don't know who he calls but I do know that he sure texts my husband a lot. These kids will probably never know what it was like to have to talk on a phone that was attached to a wall. They'll never know the anguish of having phone restriction. In another few years, they'll probably never have heard of a phone!