Phones

I think I might be getting old.

I mean, I guess I knew it was bound to happen eventually, but sometimes I have a seriously hard time remembering that I'm not seventeen anymore.  (And then I realize that seventeen, for me, was half a lifetime ago...sigh.)

What got me this morning was my cell phone.  Having rocked Austin to sleep in my quiet, darkened bedroom, I pulled out my phone to play a round (or few) of Angry Birds before moving him to his crib.  Lulled into a contemplative reverie by the hum of the humidifier, his soft, even breathing, and the rhythmic rocking of my big comfy chair, I was struck, for some reason, by the novelty of this ubiquitous little gadget.  It can play games, music, and videos.  It can show me a map of my town or of the night sky.  It can take photos.  It can surf the internet.  It functions as a flashlight, address book, calculator, calendar, and alarm clock.  It tells me the weather.  And—are you ready for this?!—it even makes phone calls!  What a crazy concept!

This whole line of thinking made me nostalgic for, of all things...pay phones.  Remember?  Those big, shiny metal boxes mounted on walls of most public places, with phones attached to actual cords?  It was a strange realization for me that such a simple and commonplace item from my childhood could seem all at once so outdated in this age of smart phones, Skyping, texting, instant messaging...concepts that were, not so long ago, as foreign as pay phones are now!

Funny, I can't remember the last call I ever placed from a pay phone.  I do, however, remember calling my mom a number of times from the pay phone located outside of my high school's office, to inquire about schedules or to excitedly report the results of long studied for tests.  (I know, I'm such a nerd!)  I remember frequent calls to a crush at his place of employment from the pay phone outside the school cafeteria (scandalous!), calling home from a bank of phones in the mall to ask if I could ride a later bus home (I will never ever ever allow any twelve year old of mine to ride unescorted on public transportation to or from the mall!), phone calls from movie theaters, restaurants, the library.  I remember the clink of quarters and hoping for enough time to talk before having to deposit another one. I remember one fateful call home to my mom from a public phone on campus after meeting my husband-to-be for the very first time.  :)

I'm sort of slow to jump on board trendy, tech savvy bandwagons.  I play music on a CD player, not an ipod, and actually still have quite a few mixtapes from the early 90's.  ;)  I read actual books, not a Kindle or Nook, and my computer is of the desktop, not laptop, variety.  I'm still not actually sure what an ipad does.  But, I have to say...I'm kind of loving my little smart phone!  And, I'm thinking that in another few years, I might actually be bold enough to explore another of the above mentioned items!

But I do still sort of miss those pay phones.  And, because I'm feeling nostalgic, I'm closing with one of my favorite songs, even though yes, thank you very much, it does actually predate yours truly.  Darren is just going to loooove me for including it here, hahaha!  (Right, honey?)  ;)