Talking on the Phone-How times have changed

I was talking with a friend yesterday (in person) and we were both commenting how neither of us likes talking on the phone much (as those around us talked or fiddled with their phones).  I asked her if she felt the same even in high school when most teenage girls are on the phone as much as possible.  "Are you kidding me?" she replied" we had an egg timer by the phone-only one to three minutes per call !"  And that's when it struck me how quickly phone usage changed in less than one generation.
  Growing up in my small town-you only had to dial five digits for a local call-the last one of the prefix and then the 4 digit remainder.  It seemed like a huge hassle when the change was made and we had to dial, gasp, all seven digits!. And with rotary phones, people lamented having to dial numbers with nines and zeroes.  Our out of state relatives and friends must have hated calling us...802-875-3007-all those 7's, 8's and 0's!  But it did provide my father a level of personal satisfaction when giving out our last four numbers as;  Three, James Bond. Huh? invariably was replied.  "You know, three, double O-Seven" would be his smiling answer.
 A second phone in the house seemed like the ultimate in luxury-especially when some friends and neighbors still had "party lines".  That's party line as a phone term not a political term.  If  I remember correctly, you would dial a friend's "party line" and all of the households' (parties')  phones on that line would ring.  And if the wrong "party" picked up I think they hung up, but the phone could "ring through" until the right party picked up.  Kind of funny when you think that now it seems like everyone in the house has there own phone, even young kids, and back then a single line was shared among separate households!
  And then there were beepers (late 80's early 90"s?).  Do they still exist (outside of the ones you get at busy chain restaurants letting you know when your table is available)?  If you saw someone who wasn't reasonably well dressed with a beeper ( a Doctor) you wouldn't be going out on a limb to suggest that they might be at the other end of the social/professional spectrum ( a dealer).  Actually, come to think of it a friend of mine is an electrician who currently uses a beeper.  Not sure why.  He's got a cell.  Wait-I know!  For some reason beepers (and texting) often work when a cell won't.  But if you get beeped and you can't call to find out what it's about...then what?
  Next were the first generation cell phones-often car phones  hard wired into your car with a sizable antenna on top (though not as big as a CB antenna-remember when those were the rage?  beyond truckers, I mean......they still use them....right?) OR a "portable" version that resembled a large purse or lunch box. Then we "downsized"  to cell phones that were larger than our cordless phones at home!  Much to the embarrassment of our young but still cognizant children.  I think they called them Fred Flintstone phones (Wilmaaaaaa!!!)  They were soooo relieved when we finally got phones that would fit in our pocket.
  Now we have these "cellphones" that are used less and less like phones and more like hand held PC's or, music/video devices, or game platforms.  Except for me.  I think I am one of the few people whose phone is "only" a phone.  I like it like that.  My phone is a phone dammit!
  Crazy I tell ya.   If Spock and Kirk had only known back in '70...  (or whenever they were trekking about with their "communicators"...)

Beam me up indeed.

Peace to the Party Line...