“Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.” — Steven Spielberg
When not looking at my cell phone, I see the amazing details of Mother Nature’s wonders all around me. — Photo by Pat Bean
Before Phones Depended on Air Waves
I’ve lived long enough to remember when phone numbers began with words and were only five digits long. If my memory serves me well, but no excuses if it doesn’t, the first word of my grandmother’s heavy black phone was Wright, which meant that the first number you dialed was a 9.
A quiet pone reflecting the world above and around. May I never be engrossed with a cell phone when I pass it by. — Photo by Pat Bean
I balked at getting a cell phone until my work, which wanted to reach me at all hours of the day and night, finally bought me one and paid for the service. Actually you didn’t usually have to purchase a phone back then. You got a free one when you signed a contract for a year or two of service.
Not too long ago, I watched a Verizon customer come in with a stupid phone that he had for many years, and which had died. The only free phone they would give him was a smart phone, which of course came with a higher monthly service charge. He opted to pay for a dumber version. Then they charged him to download what he had saved on his old phone to his new phone.
My son bought me one of those smart phones when I was traveling around the country in an RV so he could track my movements. But when I settled down here in the Sonoran Desert, I put the smart phone in the closet and reconnected my old cell phone. It texts, but if I want to write a W I have to punch 9 (and so on) as my phone doesn’t have a keyboard.
I chose to go back to my dumb phone because the monthly charge is less and everything smart phones can do, I can do on my laptop. Well except take photos, and I have a good, pocket digital, PowerShot Canon for that. And besides I’m not sure I want my kids tracking my every movement.
My problem is that, more often than not, I forget to take my cell phone with me when I go somewhere. It wouldn’t be a problem unless I needed to call someone, like if my car wouldn’t start. There are no phone books for cell phone numbers, and the only number I have memorized in my head is my own, and sometimes I have to think hard to remember it. All the phone numbers of friends, family, and care providers are saved on my dumb phone.
The upside of my forgetfulness is that I’m not missing the world around me.
Blog pick of the day. Check it out.
Bean Pat: Before I Forget http://tinyurl.com/obk8j96 Dishpans and Buckets – and Joy – another trip down memory lane.
Pat Bean's blog 