I’m going to do something new for 2019. Each month I will incorporate a segment on the blog called “Midlife Rewind.” I’ll talk about things from yesteryear that bring back the warm and fuzzies. I’m sure if you are in your “Middle Years” you’ll reminisce alongside me

Lately, I have been doing a lot of reminiscing of the “good old days” you know, the ’80s and ’90s when life was simple; my only job was high school, I still got an allowance, and MTV showed videos. A few weeks ago I was thinking about how cell phones have changed our lives as we know it. We can talk anywhere, anytime, to anyone. I remember when I didn’t have phone freedom. If I wanted to use the phone, I had to wait until no one else was using it. My Mom was ALWAYS gabbing away to her friends and couldn’t understand why I just HAD to talk to people that I just spent the last 8 hours of my day with.

Furthermore, If there was serious gossip to clarify, or I wanted to talk to my girls about my latest crush, I had to sit in the family room and know that even though she pretended she was into cooking dinner, she was trying to eavesdrop. When we got a cordless phone, I thought I’d hit the jackpot. I could go in my room and close the door for ultimate privacy! That was fine and dandy until the damn phone died and needed charging, which took HOURS. I was then back to the family room phone. I begged my parents for “my own phone.”

The conversations went something like this:

ME: “Mom…I really need a phone in my room. I need privacy.”

MOM: “No, what you need to do is go clean your room.” “You don’t need a phone; you have a phone right there, use it.” “Privacy for what? you’re not talking about anything important! Just some knucklehead boys”. (she was right)

Whenever we’d go shopping at Kmart or Gemco (yes Gemco), I’d walk over to the phones and stare — hoping and praying that my dream would become a reality. Even though I was an only child, I was by no means spoiled rotten, and I NEVER overstepped my boundaries with my parents. My Mom especially, she was only 5’2,” but she didn’t mess around. With that being said, I waited a few more months and asked again. This time she asked me how did I plan to pay for my phone? I told her that I didn’t want my own phone line, just a phone!

Let me explain to those who don’t know or may not remember….

Back then we had PacBell for our home phone. You were only allotted two phone jacks in your house. If you wanted any additional jacks, that cost money. Not only did you have to pay for the new phone jack, but you also needed a new phone number, AND you had to pay for the phone company to come and install it. The cost added up FAST. Since I had no job, that was no dice. I told her about this ingenious device called a phone splitter. It was a phone jack that you plugged in and allowed you to have two separate phone lines on one jack. To me, this certainly was a compromise. My Mom was impressed and told me the age-old answer “we’ll see.” She had no idea that I had been researching these splitters at Radio Shack every chance I got (Gosh I’m really dating myself here).

Radio Shack jack splitter picsbud.com

Fast forward to Christmas morning 1987. I got everything I asked for; Acid washed jean jacket with the fleece trim, clothes, makeup, my Liz Claiborne perfume, my coveted Caboodle and money to go to The Warehouse to get tapes. There was one gift left that had my name on it. As I unwrapped it, I screamed with delight. I got my phone, and it was the very one that I picked out at Gemco! It even had a hold button! We eventually made the trip to Radio Shack where I got my splitter and 10-foot phone extension cord. I would lay in bed and talk to my friends for hours all in the privacy of my room. That was a Christmas to remember.  It’s amazing how something so trivial could bring us such joy.  Kids these days have NO CLUE! Wait…all the stores I mentioned are not even in business anymore! Wow…  welcome to Midlife!

Did you ever have a phone in your room?