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CLAYTON RYE

By Staff | Nov 12, 2010

My wife and I upgraded our cell phones a couple weeks ago. This is my third cell phone in 12 years of carrying one.

Obviously, I am not one to change for the sake of change.

Our old phones that we have had for around five years were adequate, but I was having troubles with the keys sticking on my phone.

It would take several tries to get the key to register and sometimes I would push a key once and get the number twice on my screen.

Dialing a 10-digit phone number would require 15 to 20 key stokes because eliminating a wrong key stroke would require another key stroke.

In addition to the extra unnecessary key strokes, a lot of frustration with angry words was required to make calls.

Things were said that should not be heard on a phone. It was time to catch up to the today’s technology.

My wife upgraded to a higher level with more features. She got the phone that she can connect with the Internet.

I figure if I want to see something on the Internet that I need to use a phone for, I will borrow her phone. So far, there has not been anything.

I stayed with a basic phone because I just want to place and take calls. It is also cheaper and that was another reason for me. Go ahead, say it. Yeah, I know. I’m so tight I squeak.

Making these changes at intervals of five to six years, shows how far technology has come. I now have a camera in my phone. See how far behind I was? By today’s standards, I still am, even with my new phone.

This little blob of plastic I hold in my hand does things that are silly, but fun, like creating my own ring tone.

I have taken a picture of a favorite cat sunning himself.

I took a picture of my wife standing in front of a restaurant that we had never been to before and now that picture shows up when she calls me.

These conveniences are so commonplace now that the phone people give them away as part of a basic package. Much of it I do not see as that valuable so I would not want to pay for it anyway.

I have to remind myself that my first memories of a telephone involved seeing my parents cranking a handle on a wooden box attached to the wall and then saying something like, “Lottie, give me two-eight.”

If you wanted to call us, you asked for “4R7” and when we heard a long ring followed by two short ones, it meant we should answer the phone.

Just think, 75 years ago or more that was advancement.

I do not know what the future holds but it has to be amazing. I cannot even guess what another 10 or 20 years will bring.

Whatever happens, I will be there about five years behind everyone else and saying, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a telephone, for Pete’s sake.”

Rye is a Farm News staff writer and farmer from Hanlontown. Reach him by e-mail at crye@wctatel.net.