Hello.
It is Wednesday, March 10, 2021, and today is the 69th day of the year, isn’t it?
La de dah.
Just another day, just another brick in the wall.
Did you know that the first successful test of the gizmo known as “the telephone” happened today, way back in 1876?
Alexander Graham Bell, who was not an American, as many people think, but was Scottish-born, made the first successful call to his assistant on this day 145 years ago.
The first call was made between two rooms in a building in Boston. His assistant, Thomas Watson, picked up the call, and the rest is history, although this particular successful test was only able to show that sound could be transmitted through short distances.
Later improvements to the process allowed the telephone to be perhaps the most important invention of them all, with its creation and use allowing all of us to become closer simply by voice.
You can say that its success was certainly linked to other, later communication inventions, including radio, television and yes, even the Internet …
And certainly smart phones. As incredible an intellect as Bell was, he could never imagine how his simple telephone has become such a centerpiece of our civilization all these years later, for better or worse.
Personally, I am not a phone person, but I have had to learn to use the phone because of the various writing jobs I have had.
Right now, I am pretty good on the phone, but I still am not enamored on talking to people on the phone, although I do it as much as anyone.
Heck, I still remember my phone number as a kid in Queens—212-527-2160—which I hope that no one still has in use today—please don’t call it!
I remember the dial phone, I remember the sleeker, more “Mod” princess phone, I even remember the French-style phone my parents used.
Today, my mother uses a phone that has a read-out for the hard of hearing, which my parents originally got when my father was alive.
He was very hard of hearing, and it enabled him to take phone calls, because even if he could not hear what was being said very clearly, he could read it right on the phone.
And, of course, today’s phones take pictures, hook us up to the Internet, and do a load of other things beyond simple calls.
I guess that is both good and bad, and bad and good.
It has brought the world to life for many of us, because while we used to be a phone call away from anyone, now we are seemingly a video away from anyone … and that is both good and bad.
I really don’t know what else to say about the phone.
I have a smart phone—I was a later convert to this type of phone, but it has become part of my life now—and I cannot argue about its convenience.
I even have it hooked up in the car, but honestly, I very rarely talk to anyone on the phone in the car, but yes, I have done so like probably most of us have.
I peer into the Internet with my phone, and I also cast movies and TV shows and videos onto my HDTV with my phone.
I don’t think anyone, Bell included, could have ever envisioned how important the phone has become in our lives, not just today, but since it was mass marketed.
Pretty much for the past 75 or so years, if you didn’t have a phone, you are more out than in.
Think about that.
Since the post-World War II year of 1946 or so, if you didn’t have access to a phone—whether in your home or somewhere else—you were really on the outs.
IN the classic “The Honeymooners” TV show, the Kramdens did not own a phone, but when a call needed to be made, didn’t Alice always go up to the Nortons, who always had a phone?
I remember as teenagers, while I wasn’t on the phone very much, my sister lived on the phone, talking to her friends and boyfriends seemingly all day, every day.
I remember her going into the spare bathroom we had to give herself privacy, and I remember my father counting down numbers to get her off the phone, because two or three hours at a time was more than enough to talk about nothing.
And it cost money, too, which made it all even worse.
We can laugh at that now, but back then, with one phone line in the house, you simply could not get through if you tried to make a call and someone was on the line for that long.
And don’t get me started on party lines. I had a friend who had one, and I cannot tell you how many times we, as kids, had to make a call using that line, and we had to tell two girls to get off the line so we could make our call.
And like my sister, the girls were yakking about nothing, and our call was very, very important.
Kids today have no idea that phone calls were not as easy to make as they are today, they have no idea about rotary phones, and they have no idea just what an incredible invention the phone was for all of us, for our civilization.
And I am sure our parents and grandparents said the very same thing about us.
But those previous generations did not have to deal with the robocalls we get today.
I guess it all evens out in a funny way.
So let’s celebrate this phone anniversary today, but let’s not keep the phone off the hook about it.
The phone is a great invention, but the ringing does get a bit much at times, doesn’t it?
It is Wednesday, March 10, 2021, and today is the 69th day of the year, isn’t it?
La de dah.
Just another day, just another brick in the wall.
Did you know that the first successful test of the gizmo known as “the telephone” happened today, way back in 1876?
Alexander Graham Bell, who was not an American, as many people think, but was Scottish-born, made the first successful call to his assistant on this day 145 years ago.
The first call was made between two rooms in a building in Boston. His assistant, Thomas Watson, picked up the call, and the rest is history, although this particular successful test was only able to show that sound could be transmitted through short distances.
Later improvements to the process allowed the telephone to be perhaps the most important invention of them all, with its creation and use allowing all of us to become closer simply by voice.
You can say that its success was certainly linked to other, later communication inventions, including radio, television and yes, even the Internet …
And certainly smart phones. As incredible an intellect as Bell was, he could never imagine how his simple telephone has become such a centerpiece of our civilization all these years later, for better or worse.
Personally, I am not a phone person, but I have had to learn to use the phone because of the various writing jobs I have had.
Right now, I am pretty good on the phone, but I still am not enamored on talking to people on the phone, although I do it as much as anyone.
Heck, I still remember my phone number as a kid in Queens—212-527-2160—which I hope that no one still has in use today—please don’t call it!
I remember the dial phone, I remember the sleeker, more “Mod” princess phone, I even remember the French-style phone my parents used.
Today, my mother uses a phone that has a read-out for the hard of hearing, which my parents originally got when my father was alive.
He was very hard of hearing, and it enabled him to take phone calls, because even if he could not hear what was being said very clearly, he could read it right on the phone.
And, of course, today’s phones take pictures, hook us up to the Internet, and do a load of other things beyond simple calls.
I guess that is both good and bad, and bad and good.
It has brought the world to life for many of us, because while we used to be a phone call away from anyone, now we are seemingly a video away from anyone … and that is both good and bad.
I really don’t know what else to say about the phone.
I have a smart phone—I was a later convert to this type of phone, but it has become part of my life now—and I cannot argue about its convenience.
I even have it hooked up in the car, but honestly, I very rarely talk to anyone on the phone in the car, but yes, I have done so like probably most of us have.
I peer into the Internet with my phone, and I also cast movies and TV shows and videos onto my HDTV with my phone.
I don’t think anyone, Bell included, could have ever envisioned how important the phone has become in our lives, not just today, but since it was mass marketed.
Pretty much for the past 75 or so years, if you didn’t have a phone, you are more out than in.
Think about that.
Since the post-World War II year of 1946 or so, if you didn’t have access to a phone—whether in your home or somewhere else—you were really on the outs.
IN the classic “The Honeymooners” TV show, the Kramdens did not own a phone, but when a call needed to be made, didn’t Alice always go up to the Nortons, who always had a phone?
I remember as teenagers, while I wasn’t on the phone very much, my sister lived on the phone, talking to her friends and boyfriends seemingly all day, every day.
I remember her going into the spare bathroom we had to give herself privacy, and I remember my father counting down numbers to get her off the phone, because two or three hours at a time was more than enough to talk about nothing.
And it cost money, too, which made it all even worse.
We can laugh at that now, but back then, with one phone line in the house, you simply could not get through if you tried to make a call and someone was on the line for that long.
And don’t get me started on party lines. I had a friend who had one, and I cannot tell you how many times we, as kids, had to make a call using that line, and we had to tell two girls to get off the line so we could make our call.
And like my sister, the girls were yakking about nothing, and our call was very, very important.
Kids today have no idea that phone calls were not as easy to make as they are today, they have no idea about rotary phones, and they have no idea just what an incredible invention the phone was for all of us, for our civilization.
And I am sure our parents and grandparents said the very same thing about us.
But those previous generations did not have to deal with the robocalls we get today.
I guess it all evens out in a funny way.
So let’s celebrate this phone anniversary today, but let’s not keep the phone off the hook about it.
The phone is a great invention, but the ringing does get a bit much at times, doesn’t it?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.