Back in the Day

One of the funnest conversations that Mark and I have with our kids is about what life was like when we were teenagers. Last night Ryan remarked how he couldn't even imagine life without cell phones. Watch out---now we are going to talk about how rough we had it "back in the day!" I lived in Idaho for 14 years growing up and things were quite primitive there. Especially after having lived in suburban Los Angeles up to that point. In Idaho, when we got telephone service we had a "party-line"...which meant you shared your phone line with some other people. 16 families to be exact! Our phone would ring, but it wouldn't necessarily be for "us"...each person has a unique ring, and then you would answer it. You could also listen to other people's conversations if you very stealthily lifted up the receiver while your neighbors were having a conversation. This is like gossip on STEROIDS! When I was in junior high, a favorite pasttime would be to eavesdrop on the older teenagers conversations. Sometimes they would suspect someone was listening in and they would yell "Get off the phone!" along with some spicy profanity thrown-in for good measure.

Another downside of archaic telephones of the 60's and 70's was the short cords the phones had. This meant your feet had to stay firmly planted no farther than 6 inches from where the phone was. What a joyous day it was when someone invented those 20-foot cords that allowed you to talk on the phone AND load the dishwasher!
Now your Dad couldn't yell at you for being a lazy slob who yakked on the phone all day! You were multi-tasking!

Mark described to my son what a rotary-dial phone was, and how you would put your fingers in the dial and you would have to patiently wait several seconds for the dial to circle around so you can poke your finger in the hole and dial the next number. It seems prehistoric to even talk about it!

Fast forward to 1988 and we rejoiced with the invention of the cordless telephone. Never mind that the thing was the size of Texas with an antenna that stretched for about 5 miles! This was amazingly free-ing! We could actually lay by the pool (if we HAD a pool) and talk to our friends! We could go out in the front yard and supervise our children riding their Big Wheels while still blabbing with our best friend from high school. We still chuckle when we watch old episodes of Seinfeld and Jerry pulls out his cordless phone that just seems ENORMOUS!

In 1996 our life would change forever. We purchased our first cell phone so that we would have a phone to take on our road trip through the Southwest. In case of car trouble, we were covered. I believe it was a Motorola that weighed about 16 lbs. and the company was Air Touch Cellular. I think the plan included 100 Peak-time minutes. We were one of "the first kids on our block" to get a cell phone, so imagine how popular we were in public places when someone didn't want to find a pay phone to make a call. Of course, we had to be very careful not to go over our "minutes". Because "back in the day" they charged you 45 cents if you went over your normal allotment. Hey, they still charge 45 cents per minute for overages! Some things never change.