As he’s doing more things independently, Jenn and I made the decision to give Markus his first phone, a cheap cell phone which probably has more features and functions than the first lunar lander. This has gotten me thinking about how far we’ve come since *I* was his age, that being the ripe young age of ten. Way back then, we didn’t have cell phones, in fact individuals in the household didn’t have their own phones at all. Nope, we had this big ugly dial thing on the wall with a bell loud enough to wake the dead if someone dared call. No V]voicemail neither, come to think of it, I don’t think we had an answering machine yet. For those young kids reading this, there was actually a time before voice mail, this big gizmo would play an out-going (greeting) message to callers, then quickly fast forward a tape to a point where a message could be recorded. What’s fast forward? Oh forget it. Anyway, it seems strange thinking about these things in an era where everyone has their own phone and many have more than two lines for whatever reason. Phone numbers, which used to be hard to get are now given out like candy and does anyone else even remember what a busy signal sounded like, you know, before everyone got that call waiting thing?

So, what memories do you have of your first phone line? Thinking back on it now, what’s the biggest thing you feel has changed?