Years and years ago, my grandma promised me that when I hit forty I’d be remeniscing about the good ole days. Of course, I scoffed, laughed and outright proclaimed that she was absolutely, totally wrong. I was a teenager at the time, and we all acknowledge that teenagers know everything ‘snark’.
So, here’s today’s question – What in the world did we do before cell phones came along? Now, for those of you who were still in high school in the eighties, you KNOW what I’m talking about.
In 1985, I graduated from high school at age 16. And god, I wanted to be one of the really cool kids who had a cell phone. Mind you, there weren’t many considering how expensive it was. Not to mention the things weighted forty pounds! Okay, I’m exaggerating…they weighed ten pounds and looked like a brick covered with silver plastic!
Growing up in a typical middle-class neighborhood, my mom was a nurse and my dad was a manager at San Francisco Int’l Airport. But we didn’t have a computer at home (nobody on our block did, either). The closest thing we had was an Atari 64 with PacMan (bank, bank, bank, bank, woodooodooodoo – that’s the sound of PacMan eating little blue blinking lights and flashing ghost thingys).
TV? The best thing going was Star Trek. Yes, that was back when Captain James T. Kirk was hella sexy and slept with anything that breathed. And we LIKED it. Back then, Michael Jackson was still black and we all wanted to marry him. John Travolta was the next hip-twitchin’ Elvis singing Greased Lightening and doing the hand jive. Mr. Spock was sexy as hell.
AND THERE WERE FIVE CHANNELS ON NON-CABLE TV – Channel 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9. Maybe 13, if you were lucky. If you had cable, you got forty channels and NO pay-per-view. Sigh.
So what did we do? We read. We got out of the house. We walked, rode bikes up and down the hills of San Francisco. Took trips to the beach or the zoo. Or went walking in the park.
What DIDN’T WE DO? We didnt’ work twenty-four seven. The boss didn’t call in the middle of the evening commute to give us more work to do when we got home. Why? Cause we couldn’t dial into the office anyway (woohoo!). Why not? We didn’t have an internet connection. We didn’t ‘gasp’ blog every day. There was no yelling at the kids to turn down the surround sound, or turn off the DVD player, or get off the XBox 360. We didn’t have any of that stuff.
House was cleaner…‘cause the chores got done without much of a fight. The rule was get your chores done or you can’t go outside. Well, who goes outside anymore when they can play video games? ‘hack – wheeze’!
Don’t get me wrong – I love technology. I work with it everyday. But my job can reach me anywhere at anytime, whether I’m at home, in the airport, on vacation, or on the damned freeway. And considering it’s after-hours, and I just got off the phone with my boss, I miss the days when we got home, spent time with family, had dinner together, then mooned over Star Trek!
I never thought I’d say it, but grandma was right. Here I am, due to turn forty in a few months…and I long for the days when work was work, and home was home.
If your grandma made the same prediction, then give her a shout out right here, baby! Yo, Gramms! You were right! ‘tj running around in circles, pulling the locs off of her head!’
TJ
www.tjmichaels.com
PS – Oh, I almost forgot, HATSEPT HEAT, Book 3 in the Vampire Council of Ethics, is coming! For an excerpt, visit my website at http://www.tjmichaels.com/sneak-peek/
I’m dragging my feet, TJ. I was in HS when you were (highlight of my life was Madonna’s Like a Virgin tour!) But I resisted the cellphone craze as long as I could. I got my first cell phone in December 2007. That’s right. I had two kids and a full time job and NO cell phone. People thought I was nuts. I caved when my DH offered me and iPhone. But if you call my cell number, here’s what you hear: “Hi! This is Kerri. Thanks for calling. But please don’t leave a message because I won’t be checking for them. If this is an emergency call my land line at ….” My cell is my iPod and Blackberry. I screen every call, and only take the ones from my kids…
Kerri! Girlfriend! I am rowing in the boat with you. The only reason I have a cell phone is to keep track of my kids. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of giving it to other people, like the folks at work who send out meeting notices at 11:00pm at night…then expect me to have seen it in time to make the 8:00am meeting in the morning. ROFL! Ain’t happening ;D
Girl, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even answer my phone at home!
TJ
PS – I remember the Madonna tour! It was the hottest thing going…other than Michael Jackson’s Thriller tour, of course ;D
I hate phones. I have to answer them at work and more often than not, at home Dh & I both let the machine pick it up (one bit of technology I like – that and caller ID) It’s amazing the people talking on their cells everywhere. And those little bluetooth things stuck in the ear – I want to just yank them out!
Sorry, ya hit a sore spot with me too, TJ.