You know you're getting old when...


 
Ha Ha... I held on to my first cellular phone for as long as I could. Eventually (maybe when they went to a digital network?) I had to retire it because it was no longer supported - it was VERY out of date by then and quite the head-turner. I believe it was a full five watts output. This, of course, was the venerable Motorola Bag Phone. Yup - the one that looked like a small piece of luggage, ran on a big camcorder battery, and could blow the horn on the truck when a call came in :ROFLMAO:

Here's a funny story...
When I first got married my Wife and I were on our way to meet some friends. I got lost so I pulled out my trucker's atlas (yup, the one that has all the weigh stations listed - you know, made of real paper). I figured out where we were and said, "we better call them and tell them we're gonna be late". So first, we had to get out of the truck so I could get the phone (I kept it behind the seat and you had to tip the seat-back forward to get back there).

I placed the leatherette bag, with it's big MOTOROLA logo, on the seat and got back in the truck. My Wife watched curiously as I opened the bag and assembled the phone.

Steps to make a call...
Take out the extruded aluminum base unit, place on seat.
Take out the handset, plug cord into base, place on seat.
Take out gel-cell battery, snap power cord clip onto battery, put battery back into bag.
Plug battery power cord into base unit.
Screw rubber duckie antenna onto base and point upward.
Turn on phone.
Make call. Phone is stowed by reversing above steps.

My Wife was totally mystified. She then said that everyone else has a phone they can hold in their hand. Well, she was right about that.
 
That brings back memories! Back in the early 80’s, AMR (Automated Meter Reading) for electric meters was in its infancy and was pretty much only for large industrial customers. Every meter had a hard wired phone line run to it but when something happened to that line I would have to go to the site and “force a call with the bag phone”. AMR/AMI has certainly come a long way since then!
 
I bought a new pickup truck in 2016 to replace my 20 year old (original owner) one.

My wife and I were chatting with the salesman at the dealership when the subject of cell phones came up.

When I told him I didn’t own a cellphone, his jaw dropped.

He confided that he never owned one either, but his future wife told him he needed to get one, because he said she wanted to keep tabs on him.

He was admittedly envious of me.

My wife and I were having a good laugh after we left.

It turns out this new modern truck had some nice features that were connected with having a smart phone, so I got an iPhone a few months later.

And now I have an Apple Watch to go with it.

I am not adverse to new technology, but in general I long for the time before personal computers and such.

Fwiw
 
I might grouse about the stupid cell phone but, it is convenient to have “talk to the car” when I’m running errands and want to see what SWMBO might want for lunch or dinner if I’m out later. I’m slowly learning that it’s really a baaaaad idea to call her from Costco! That added almost a hundred bucks to the last trip! There are time to simply go “dark”!
 
John_NJ said:
I guess I should consider myself lucky that I have no idea what you’re talking about?
Click to expand...
Jeff Foxworthy (stand-up comedian, "you might be a redneck if....") has an entire bit about raising kids and caring for elderly parents at the same time.
 
Oh I spent my fair share of time at the diaper changing table.
Then it was sport teams for near a dozen years.
Now it’s “Daddy can you help me with the plumbing and electrical in my kitchen?”
 
I’ve had that can opener in a drawer forever.

I used it to open a can of chicken stock earlier and figured some of the people here could appreciate the image.

The opener was advertising the local Brooklyn brewed Piels beer.

As I was typing this post, it reminded me of something my mom gave me many years ago, as I was a fan of the local Bob and Ray radio program- these guys did advertisements for Piels I guess in the 50’s

49E908AA-F232-42CD-B45B-536C7BB0D2F1.jpeg
 
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