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No cell phones
August 7, 2006
It was 6:00pm in Washington and I was panicked.
Two of my friends, Guy and John, were desperate to see the Declaration of Independence. I decided to go ahead with the rest of our group to stop by the Lincoln Memorial, promising that I would wait for the two of them there. We stopped at a museum and proceeded to walk to Lincoln.
After about 25 minutes of taking pictures, my group wanted to shop. I did not want to shop. I wanted to wait for Guy and John. I spent another 10 minutes convincing them to leave as I waited.
An hour later, they still hadn’t shown up.
Since it’s my job to worry, I got to work. What if they got here super early and I missed them? What if they’re somewhere in this massive crowd of people and we keep missing each other?
And what was worse…
They don’t have cell phones. What if I don’t find them for the rest of the night? What if I’m stuck at the hotel alone because I can’t get a hold of them?
And, of course, the question came to me: What did people do before cell phones? Well, for one, they probably made better plans.
I hopped a subway back to the hotel, turned on the TV, and crawled into bed, convinced that I somehow lost them for the night and would be spending it alone watching reruns and avoiding the nightlife of D.C.
The moment I closed my eyes, I heard the sweep of the key card outside of my door. Guy strolled in, sat on my bed, and shook me while yelling in his loud, British accent, “Get up Rachel! We’re going out!” John followed, apologizing for being late, they had been stuck in an extremely long line.
Instantly, I was happy. Not only because my friends had come back or because I wouldn’t be stuck in the hotel alone. I smiled because I knew, that no matter what circumstances could arise, people can really live without cell phones.
August 7th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
My only guess is that people lived at a much slower pace before our myriad of means of communication. I don’t know if I could have lived before phones though.
I didn’t realize you go to SRU. That’s awesome!
August 8th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Argh I don’t think I can survive without my cell phone. It’s an absolute neccesity for me. And almost everyone around me depends on their cellphones. I think our plans will fall through if we don’t own a cellphone.
Anyway I’m glad you got to meet up with your friends in the end!
August 8th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Sorry spelling mistake. I meant necessity. ;D
August 11th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
I can definitely survive without cell phones. For one, I’m trying to avoid certain people, and being without a cell phone is the perfect reason I cannot be found. This is the main reason why I’m deactivating my account before school starts ;)
Anyway, you’re definitely right about people making better plans and sticking to it back then!