Do you remember your first phone number? How about your best friend’s? Do you remember your grandma’s from when you were growing up?
There are some phone numbers that are hardwired into my brain, most of which are no longer useful to me. But they’re still in my head (along with my address when I was 5, and my locker combination from 9th grade).
While I can tell you my zip code from 1979, I don’t know the number to MaM’s school. Or the Fox’s. Or my boss’s. My smart phone, has, in away, replaced my brain.
MaM has started calling her friends from school- and they have started calling her. Since we ditched the landline years ago, they’re calling my mobile phone. I’ll be honest, it’s making me twitchy.
We tossed around our options- we could get our landline back, or we could get a mobile “house” phone. Since Leilan works for the phone company, it turned out that getting our landline back was the most economical option. I’m also glad to have the landline back in case of emergencies- should the kids ever need to call 911, the first responders will know exactly where they are. And if we ever lose power for so long that our mobile phones die, our trusty landline will still work.
We had just one problem once the tech reactivated our land line.
We needed to buy a phone. This morning I found a phone (with a cord! and a wire!) at Goodwill, and for less than $10 we got everything we needed. I excitedly wiped down the new accessories, and as I hooked it up, Leilan told the kids the news. They now have their own phone line (myself from 1986 is so jealous)! Here’s how that conversation went:
“Good news, kids! We have a phone for you to use.”
“Does it have apps? What kind of games does it have?”
“It’s not that kind of phone.”
“What kind of phone is it?”
“It’s a phone to talk on,”
“Oh.”
Do you know what happens after you hook up a home phone and let your kid, who’s really only ever used an iPhone, use it?
She calls you when you’re upstairs. And then she ask you how to hang up the phone, because there’s no “end” button. And when you leave the house, she asks you to call her when you’re on your way home.
It’s a brave new world, friends.
Wow! I talked to a parent who said their kids keep tapping on the television, not being able to understand why it won’t respond to their touch. I didn’t get a cell phone until college, and even then, it wasn’t a “smart phone” with apps and such. My boyfriend and I considered getting a landline, because with AT&T our phone bill would actually go DOWN. Can you believe that? To think, these landlines may be…. retro!