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Subject: Cell phones
Have we really progressed?
Non-fiction Copywrite Jan Watts 2003
I grew up in an era of black telephones that plugged into
the wall and unless you had a very long extension cord, you didn't
get more than 10 feet away.
They had a circular dial and you stuck your finger in the
hole and pulled the number around until it hit a little silver bar
on the phone. Most telephone numbers started with a couple of
letters and five numbers. One of my phone numbers was ED 37617 which
stood for EDGEWOOD. Later, on the ED was changed to numbers because
so many people had phones, there had to be more number combinations.
I also had NO 53436 which stood for Normandy.
Most homes only had one phone and it was usually in the
kitchen area. There was no call waiting, call forwarding, three way
calling or answering
machines.
If you called someone and they were talking on the phone,
you got a busy signal. People would actually leave their houses to
go to work, church and shopping without worrying about missing a
phone call. Then came the little princess phone that the phone
company provided. It was cute and came in lots of colors. Then the
phone company decided that you should buy your own phone and they
would just provide the service. Then came answering machines.
Everybody that was anybody had an answering machine. Not just
doctors and lawyers.
Not long after that, the battery operated phone came along
that you could pick up and walk outside in your yard and talk. My
goodness, we shouldn't go out and enjoy our yard without being able
to answer those pesky telemarketers!
Does anybody remember pagers? Those little gadgets that we
clipped to our waist so important people could be disturbed during
their lunch hour or dinner out with the family? It use to be only
doctors had them, and then people who were in emergency service
repairs like plumbers. The little things would go off and we'd go
running to the nearest pay phone to answer them.
My first one was a voice pager. You would hear someone's
voice coming out of the side of your body or your purse. My office
would leave these long messages that sounded like "mab eilseln
googleism en totamel melville call first". It would always cut off
before they could rattle off the phone number you needed and of
course, you didn't have a pen in your hand so you couldn't have
written it down anyway.
So you made two phone calls for a quarter each. One to the
person who left the message, usually my office to get them to repeat
the name and number slowly after I found a pen and then to the
person who called for me.
My kids loved those talking pagers. They would wait until
they knew I was sitting in a nice restaurant for a business lunch
and yell, "help, get me out of here!"
That brings us to cell phones. What can I say about cell
phones? Again, I think they were designed so we could reach doctors
in emergencies or we could call for a tow truck if we were broke
down on the highway. The first cell phones were truly car phones.
You had to have holes bored into your car and an antenna attached to
use them. I argued with the salesman that kept trying to sell me one
that I drove several different cars and I didn't know which one I
wanted a phone in. He thought I should put one in each of the cars
so that argument didn't work with him. I really didn't like the idea
of boring holes in my cars.
That brings us to the cell phone today. They are no longer
for doctors or the very elite and very important. Almost everyone
over 10 is walking around with a cell phone. They are almost like
another appendage on the human body. They are clipped on our belts
or held in our hand or up to our ear. No one goes anywhere without
their cell phone. Why is that? What is so important that we can't
wait until we get through the drive-thru window placing our lunch
order or finish eating a meal with a friend before answering the
phone for another friend? It's called etiquette. When you are
standing in line at the grocery store, you don't need to be talking
to a friend about what movie to go see.
When you are out with one friend, you can wait till you get
home to talk to another friend. Or at least til you get back in your
car driving home.
My friends think I'm strange because I actually leave my
phone in the car when I go inside a building for a meeting. I refuse
to answer my phone when I'm having lunch with a business
associate. I don't carry my phone into the grocery store while I'm
buying groceries. I don't walk through Wal-Mart talking on the
phone. I sure don't take it into church with me and I turn it off
while I'm taping my TV show or emceeing a concert.
I was sponsoring a talent workshop this weekend and the
speaker stopped to answer his cell phone. That's a big no no. If you
are addressing a group of people, you don't stop to answer your cell
phone. I was taking a night class last year and the teacher stopped
and answered her cell phone. If I'm in church and the pastor stops
preaching to answer his cell phone, it better be God on the other
end!
Cell phones have become a big nuisance. I don't think every
12 year old needs a cell phone. I don't want to hear four people
having a conversation on a cell phone while I'm trying to eat
dinner. I sure don't want someone to run a red light because they
were talking on a cell phone.
My address book isn't big enough to write all the numbers to
reach one person. My husband has two phone lines at his office, a
fax line, company email, home email, a pager, a company cell phone,
a home phone, a home fax line and a personal cell phone. That's just
way too much. Maybe we should go back to the old black phones that
the phone company provided. I dare you to leave your cell phone home
the next time you go out! Try it, you might like it.
Posted 05/18/2003
Jan Watts
Premiere Promotions - Music that Ministers www.premiere-promotions.com - check often to see what events are coming up janwatts1@cox.net
Host of
Straight Talk on KTQW Channel 53 Wichita
Wed. 9 am and Thurs. 7 pm
TALENT
FEST 2003 at the Wichita River Fest May 10th
Looking for truth?
www.toolong.com
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