IN THE SEVENTIES IT WASN'T "You've Got Mail" it was "You've Got Phone"!Does anyone else remember the Phone Mate? Do you remember the days when having your own telephone answering machine was considered High Technology? This was in the Stone Age, back in the seventies and we were just beginning to hear about "computers". There was no such thing as cell phones (at least for the masses), laptops, PDAs, iPods, Bluetooth or any of today's cool mod cons we take for granted.
I got my Phone Mate in the early seventies. It was a big black and fake wood plastic box with reel to reel recording for both the outgoing and incoming messages. You recorded your first outgoing message with great excitement - something cutesy and totally annoying or something totally boring like "Leave your message at the tone". Being a total freakazoid I had to do "cutesy" - though I can't remember that exact first message. Your caller was allowed up to a minute for their message - if they had more to say, tough luck!
This was my first foray into anything High Tech and I was totally jazzed at the freedom my new answering machine was going to give me! I showed it off to all my friends. I laughed at some of the first phone messages I received - people were so taken by surprise they sputtered for most of the message or just hung up!
It's been a long time since that first phone message machine, I have a smart phone, 3 computers, MP3 players - you name it, if it has buttons and computer chips I have one! But sometimes I look back at the days before technology followed me around like a puppy and think that maybe simpler is better.
Oh crap, I've got phone again, can't people just leave me alone for five minutes????
