I just used my iPhone to scan a receipt so I could e-mail it to our homeowners’ association for reimbursement. That’s just one of almost countless things I do with my phone every day… phones are becoming pretty much constant companions and we use them constantly — and hardly ever to make phone calls.
I remember when I was a kid not having a phone (they were called ‘telephones’ back then.) It wasn’t that we were poor or lived out in the sticks somewhere, almost no one in the part of Oklahoma that I grew up in had a telephone — including the businesses.
I remember when we got our first phone/telephone. It was black and heavy. It didn’t have a dial, even though it was shaped like the old dial telephones — where the dial would have been was just a small circle with our phone number written in it… I’m pretty sure our phone number was 42, or maybe 47 — but it was only two digits. The phone didn’t have the fancy spiral cords that became popular later — it just had a long black (cloth covered) wire attaching the handset to the base. If you wanted to make a phone call, you just picked up the handset and an operator would answer with the phrase “number, please.” But the operator in Maysville always knew everyone and usually called you by name. If the phone rang, you waited to see if it was for you… you could tell by the number of long and short “rings.” I don’t know of anyone that had a private line — everyone had to share their line with someone else.
I remember getting a dial phone — it looked just like the old phone except the little circle in the middle was replaced by a dial. It was still black. When we got a dial phone our phone number changed to four (!!!!) digits. But the last two digits didn’t work and it didn’t matter if you used them when you dialed or not. Only the first two digits counted and they were the same two digits you had when you didn’t have to dial your phone. Of course everyone was all upset… now everyone had to remember people’s phone numbers (or look them up in something new that came along, called a phone book.) People just couldn’t believe it was now necessary to remember two numbers if you wanted to talk to someone on the telephone.
I remember leaving home after finishing high school and the phone in our house had progressed to a phone on the wall in the kitchen — still with a dial, but I think it was white, not black. And the four digits had acquired a letter prefix… I think ours was UN-xxxx. Of course you didn’t have to “dial” the UN, or even all four digits most of the time.
I remember my first “push button” phone — no more dials, just push a button and you didn’t hear all that interrupted dial tone that you did when using a dial phone — just a different tone for each button you hit. Some people were clever and learned to play simple tunes using the buttons on the phone.
I remember our first cordless phone. We were living in Vienna at the time and I bought a cordless phone at Radio Shack for Claire’s birthday. I don’t think Claire particularly wanted a cordless phone, but the one we had on the wall in the kitchen had a cord long enough to reach almost all over the house. Claire used to tour the house when she was on the phone — she’d just tuck the phone between her ear and shoulder somehow and that kept both hands free as she went about her business. I never did figure out how she did that…. Anyhow, the cord would often knock things off the cabinets or stove and fairly regularly strangle me if I happened to be at the kitchen table. So I figured the solution was a cordless phone. It worked pretty well, but suffered from interference some of the time, but here we were one of the pioneers moving into the future.
I remember our first portable or “cell” phone. It came in a bag and sat on the floor of Claire’s van between the drivers and passenger seat. It had a handset just like a home phone and it had a cord… just like a home phone. And it was black. But it worked well and we could make (and receive) calls when we were on the road or at one of the kids activities, like ball games. Since there weren’t many cell towers yet, there were a few “dead” spots, but again — here we were one of the pioneers charging into the future.
I remember my first true “cell” phone — Claire gave it to me for father’s day and when I called to activate it, the operator was almost excited as I was, so I’m pretty sure once again we were leading the charge into the future — at least in Vienna. The phone was a “flip” phone that was popular for a number of years. Phones got smaller, but the basic design stayed the same… just flip open the phone to expose the screen and keyboard.
I remember the first iPhone I got — it was an iPhone 4. Claire didn’t get one, she just upgraded her “flip” phone. Her first iPhone was a 4S… and I got one at the same time.
I still remember all my experiences with telephones over the years… I remember a lot of things, but I don’t remember how I ever got along without an iPhone….
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