Of Cell Phones And Convenience, And Missed Sightseeing Opportunities

When I was in grade school, in the middle of the previous century, I lived in rural Virginia, USA. Virginia is in the middle of the east coast, and having been part of (what we Americans call it) the "Revolutionary War", and a subsequent internal war (the American "Civil War"), is steeped in historical significance.

As an aside, I will note that, to folks of European or Asian background, the History of the USA is not so significant at all. But when you live in rural Virginia, with very few recreational opportunities, sightseeing at "historical" locations was a big thing, in those days.

So one summer, my parents got the idea that we would go visit Gettysburg Pennsylvania, which was a major Civil War attraction north of us, and a few long hours of driving too. And we would meet up with some cousins of ours, who lived about halfway between us and Gettysburg. And the agreement was that we would drive to Gettysburg in the early morning, and they would start from their house later, and we would meet in a central location in Gettysburg, at a certain time.

So we got up very early in the morning, and drove the long (3 or 4 hours I would guess) trip to Gettysburg, and had a couple hours of sightseeing by ourselves, but saved the fun stuff for when our cousins were able to enjoy it with us.

And at the appointed time, we went to the meeting place, and waited. And no cousins.

So not to make this story drag on, we found later that the appointed meeting place actually existed in two places in the town. We, of course, were at one clone, and our cousins at the other. And both families learned of the mistake from Gettysburg natives, and both families spent some time driving from one meeting place to the other. And neither family did any fun sightseeing that day.

Now those of you reading this tale, and maybe being of the age that I was at that time (or even having kids of that age) will say to me

So why didn't one of you call the other?

and the answer would be

Actually, both families spent some time using the phone.

However, in our cases, we were each using public phones, and calling the others home phone. Of course, neither family was at home, they were simply elsewhere in Gettysburg, in another phone booth.

And that's the bottom line. The closest thing to a cell phone, in those days was a fictional shoe phone, carried by a fictional spy (played by a now dead American actor), Max Smart.

In most of the houses where we lived, there was a phone in each house. Stuck to the wall, or sitting on a table attached to a wire. And it was that phone that was ringing, as we were driving around Gettysburg looking for our cousins (and no, we didn't have answering machines either).

Cell phone? If you had told one of us kids then that we would grow up and have a phone that we could carry everywhere in our pocket, and converse with anybody else carrying another phone, while we shopped or ate, we would have stared at you, and wondered

What is this guy smoking?

Of course, the other guy has to be carrying his phone too. And that is the next half of this tale.

My mum, having grown up in an era before mine, didn't even use a phone when she was our age. In her time, if any nearby neighbour had a phone, that was enough.

So my mum has a phone at home (actually several, some of which I installed when I lived there, in various places in the house). And she has a cell phone, on the charger in her bedroom. But when she goes out to visit friends, there the cell phone stays, on the charger in her bedroom.

And that's the problem. A cell phone is all about convenience. It's not convenient, when you leave it sitting in your bedroom.

And now we note that, one day, a museum might be the only place where you would see a public (pay) phone.