Where's the pay phone? I need to make a call

What did we do before cell phones? Remember when you could go to the corner and find a phone booth or a pay phone? Remember when you had a party line and it was long distance to call Monroeville? It wasn't that long ago when you could dial just five numbers for a local call. Remember when Eddie Albert used to climb the telephone pole to make a call on the Green Acres sitcom? I remember when we were kids we would wear penny loafers and put a dime in our shoe for an emergency phone call. Remember when it was such a big deal to turn your rotary phone in for one with buttons? When I was in college I wrote letters because calling home was too expensive. When was the last time you wrote somebody a letter? From the landlines we went to the pagers, and then cell phones. Cell phones make life a whole lot easier. No more landlines for most of us and no more clunky answering machines. Does anybody still use a phone book? Cell phones can do just about everything for us now. Just buying a cell phone is a major chore. There are so many to choose from and so many prices. Heck, I see the flip phones are making a comeback. Have you seen the cost of some phones now? That would have been enough to buy a decent used car back in the day. A friend of mine called me the other day for some help. She has tickets for Ohio State football games, but she didn't know how to get them on her phone. There are no more paper tickets you can hold and keep forever. Everything is on your phone. I didn't know how to help her, so I told her to do the same thing I do: Ask one of your kids. We went to the Browns game this past Sunday and our tickets were on the phone. In the "old days," my friend John would have all of the tickets in his hands and would pass them out to each of us before we left the Velvet Dog on West Sixth Street for our trek to the game. That way, if anybody got lost or sidetracked walking to the game they could find the stadium and seat on their own. Now, we had to all stay together and go in as a group. Our other buddy, Josh, could have passed the tickets out to each of our phones — but this seemed like a safer way for a couple of us old-timers. On Tuesday, I paid my first bill online. Once I got everything I needed, it wasn't too bad. But I am still the guy who likes to sit down at the kitchen table with my bills, write a check, then send them out in the mail. Sometimes I take my water bill and walk it down to city hall. Other times I take my bills to Drug Mart and pay them there. I know it would be a lot easier to pay them online, but I am not ready to take that leap. I like the way I am doing it now. I do like Facetime with my grandchildren. Dial the phone and it's like you are in the same room with them. I also like to use the phone for directions. I remember going to AAA and getting a TripTik for our long-distance trips. You had directions going, then flip it over and it would get you home. Now, when Jody and I are going somewhere she plugs in where we are heading and the phone does the rest. I can't tell you how many times before cell phones when we were trying to get from point A to point B, Jody would get out the map and we would give it our best shot. I can't tell you how many times I had to turn the car around. Now, instead of Jody telling me when we are lost, the nice lady on the phone will tell me I screwed up. I am amazed how she knows where and when to turn when I am out in the middle of nowhere. It's like having a second wife telling me where to go. I love my cell phone. Joe Centers is Reflector managing editor. He can be reached at jcenters@norwalkreflector.com.