When I took my first cross country adventure in August of 2001, it consisted of 4 girls (3 of them sisters – which makes for a story in itself), 2 cars stuffed to the gills, 2 walkie-talkies, and plenty of quarters for pay phones. Yes, that is right folks – this great adventure happened in pre-cell phone days. To be fair, people did have cell phones in 2001, but they were few and far between. Granted, we lost one of the walkie-talkies somewhere in Minnesota, had to stop at sketchy pay phones every night to call home, and had to use a stranger’s phone in the middle of Montana when we locked the keys in one of our cars – but we made it. Two weeks on the open road and no problems we couldn’t handle without a cell phone.
Six and a half years later, I leave my phone in my boyfriend’s car as he drops me off at home this morning on the way to work – and all hell breaks loose! Of course I don’t know his phone number – or anyone else’s save for my parents’ and, randomly Laura’s. But due to another great technology – I can at least email Boston to verify that he has his phone. Now he has to bring it up to my house tonight, because I can’t call him to see if he is home to pick it up, and even if he was home, I couldn’t get into his apartment building without calling him.
I feel so out of touch without it! I mean, what if Gris wants to have lunch with me today? (She can email me, or just come down and knock on the door. Like she just did 2 seconds ago.) What if my mom calls, and I don’t call her back right away and she thinks something is wrong? (My mom isn’t a worry-wart like me.) What if I need to google-text to find something out? (Mmmm, yeah… I sit in front of a computer all day). OK, we are talking about like 12 hours with out the phone - I need to get over it, the world as we know it is not going to end. Deep breaths.
Random aside, involving me and my cell phone… I got shushed last night for talking on the phone on the bus. A mean old lady turned around, gave me the evil eye, and put her finger to her mouth and shushed me!! Of course, my phone rang 5 more times during that 20 minute bus ride (massive avalanche on the freeway + night skiing outing = disappointed would-be skiers who drove 30 miles towards the mountains to only have dinner at a mediocre diner and turn around). I tried to keep my voice down, but I still got the stare of death as I hurried off the bus – with my phone to my ear of course. Hi?!?! Public bus – I can talk if I want to!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The Wonderful World of Cell Phones
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6 comments:
Seriously, how did people communicate pre-cell phones? I just think about how it takes approximately 27 calls and just as many texts to coordinate a night out with my friends in NYC, and I wonder how people did it in "the Stone Age" (AKA the late 90s). Even further, I've become so dependent on my CrackBerry that I don't even look at where I'm going in advance; I simply Google map it along the way. Not a good habit to get into.
On another note, I love the Zach Morris picture. When I was home over Christmas, I found my mom's first cell phone - it was a flip phone, which at the time was the smallest one on the market, and it was still bigger than a handheld phone you'd find in your house.
I was living in Europe from 1999-2000 and they were a little ahead of us on the "portable" train (the French word for cell phone). Anyway, I swore I would never have one on principle. That last about 2 months. I haven't been without one since. When I forget it, I feel like I'm missing an appendage.
This reminds me of the time I left my phone in Out of Town Boy's car when he dropped me in Baltimore and proceeded to drive straight through to Nebraska. I was without a phone for a week until he mailed it and had to make all phone calls from work. Fortunately all my numbers were saved in Outlook.
It's definitely more of a 'what if so-and-so calls' than a 'what if I want to call'. Because it means that I might be missing out on something!
I actually got my first cell phone in the fall of 2000 after I moved off campus. Coverage sucked, but I could make long distance calls for free.
Random side note: I made reference to the Zach Morris phone at work the other day -- to a Czech (who to be fair lived in the states from 1990-1992 and is our age) and a Scot and they both stared blankly. I died a little, I think.
haha i love the picutre of zach morris, i had such a crush on him growing up. i'm lost without my cell phone.
Cell phones haven't just changed communication...they've changed lifestyles. I didn't have a phone for about a week last fall after my phone died and before my new one came in the mail, and it was so effing weird.
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