“Reach out and touch someone.”
Anyone else remember those long distance commercials? Sometimes I freak out just a little when I think about how some things in my life — totally NORMAL THINGS, dammit — sound like Little House on the Prairie days to my now young-adult kids. Phones fall squarely under this category.
Paying by the minute to call people. The fact that one wrong button pushed could be the difference between a reasonable evening chat and a long distance bill that would land you on restrictions when your dad opened it. The concept that marketing would be designed to encourage phone calls, because what do you mean people didn’t yap all day and night on the phone in the ’70s? The fact that it used to be the norm to be out of touch and it took a real effort to keep in contact with people who didn’t live in your day to day sphere.
The more I talk about this the more I realize it sounds a bit like communication among the colonies or how messages were passed along while traveling the Oregon Trail.
I am clearly a million years old. Time to dissolve into dust as the younguns pass at the speed of light.
Linda hosts Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This week’s prompt is “distance.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Riddle from the Middle 
My son thinks I’m a dinosaur when he asks me questions like, do you remember things like cassette decks, camera film and only 3 channels on the tv which all went off air at midnight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bless it, we’re ALL dinosaurs at this rate. 🙃
LikeLike
I used to have a friend who lived in the neighboring town, same area code, and I had to dial 1 before her number to call. I wracked up the bill, and I wasn’t allowed to dial 1 until I paid it off. My mom was so angry. Different days indeed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Woo boy, parental anger over a big phone bill was real! I’d argue with the same area code there’s no way I would have thought that was long distance…that’s also the kind of thing I try to remind myself of when I think “but they should have known that” about my own young people. 🙂
LikeLike
A few days ago, my 12 year old son found out what VHS was, for the first time!
I’m in my mid 40s but yeah definitely feels like a million years old 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh goodness, VHS must seem crazy old to him. The idea that we couldn’t just stream movies, that we had to go to actual stores to rent a VHS tape to see something…we saw “be kind, rewind” on something once and I had to explain it to my kids. Bless 😂🤣
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m one of those “kids”, though I’ll be forty in June and used a landline into my early 20s, then an old-fashioned mobile for many years because I feard I wouldn’t be able to learn to operate a smartphone. Thankfully I’m now a pretty good iPhone user, but AI is still largely beyond me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Forty in June is indeed a “kid” in many ways…it’s so interesting to see the variables that people have over the arc of their lives. Think of what you’ll see in another twenty years!
I’ve stayed far outside the AI realm. I don’t even like those AI summaries that appear at the top of search results pages — the hubby says I’ll be left behind the times. I’d rather keep my wits sharp and read from the source.
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOL, I remember those days! Gone are landlines in every home, phone booths on the corner, and the princess phone was at home, not in our purse or pocket. Yup, I have to be careful when I talk to “kids” who are in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s so they don’t have that “what in the heck are you talking about” look on their faces.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Phone booths on the corner!! Bwahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!!
When I told my kids about using a quarter to call my parents from the pay phone in the skating rink for a ride home they looked at me aghast. And the time one of them was supposed to call the tire place to check status and they said “it won’t go through, it keeps making this weird sound” AND IT WAS A BUSY SIGNAL…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! Just wait until they are our age and their kids laugh at them (or give them a funny look) because of their prehistoric life!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you are a million, I’m a billion. I’m amazed at how fast stuff moves these days. Even an old fart like me has an AI assistant. Good thing too. Would never be able to stay up with change without it. (The whole idea of an AI assistant for a soon to be 85 year old , tells us something.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
It surely does. Helping my husband’s mom navigate her phone is a whole thing so you managing an AI assistant is serious tech savvy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was a consultant to a tech company starting in the early 90s. They hired me, and so I kept up to date.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Certain jobs have real life benefits. I worked patient customer service at a laboratory facility. My understanding of the healthcare system has been incredibly useful over the years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is a good experience for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And waiting until Sunday night to call home because the rates were so much less. Kids must think we had that wall phone in a cave.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right?? Those were the dark ages. Everyone in college was supposed to call their parents for the check in on Sundays…I honestly don’t know that I ever connected that was due to the rates.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lowest rates of the week!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh the 1900s sure makes it sound like we lived in the olden frontier days! Yep, I remember phones and having ‘party lines’, those shared lines with strangers! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
When the youngsters started calling it this I laughed and laughed then promptly felt ancient. 🤣 The house we live in was built in 2005(ish) and there’s a phone jack in the kitchen. We moved in & I was like should we get a house phone?? Hadn’t thought about that in years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
so funny to think about 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person