Before phones etc

Goodbye meant goodbye 

It sobers me to think about the day I bought my first iphone at Caroline Warehouse on north finchley high street, and how well into my adult life I was - in my early thirties.

got my first mobile in 2000 when I was 28.  I still have it.

It was a gift from a friend who wanted to send me "text" messages.. I had no clue what that was, nor did I see a point to it.  Oh how that phone changed my world.

I'd had a work mobile before that which I'd deliberately leave at home as I didn't want people phoning me for pointless reasons.

Life before phones and the internet wasn't as good.

I disagree, half the fun of a Saturday night was traipsing from pub to pub to see which one your friends were in and by the time you found them, you were half cut (at their level).  Sometimes during this journey, you'd meet a lovely young lady, go back to her place and the next day go home and never see or hear from her again, the fake phone number was easy to give out as it couldn't be instantly checked.

And no one had video of you doing stupid things.

Obvs this sounds a tad de trop but if you read Parfit and Galen Strawson on personal identity you will find rich accounts of the human experience. These are no longer really feasible in a world where you remain connected to your previous self. Tethered. And each successive generation increasingly so. You only have to look at how neurotic most interactions are now. No freedom.

I like the idea of Caroline Warehouse a store selling PLU middle aged ladies.

At least in the old days people stuck to plans as if you didn't meet at the Dog and Duck at 7pm you wouldn't find people later.  Now you arrive at the appointed time only to get a message ten minutes later saying the person you're meeting is running late and will be another half hour.  Also amongst my friends if you make the mistake of texting to say you're almost at the pub you will arrive to find a table full of empty glasses.

Make plan on Wednesday to meet on Saturday in pub at 7pm.

Be there at 7pm Saturday. Lateness permitted for public transport or parent-lift issues; non-show only permitted due to death.

Reminds me of a friend calling me from a payphone at school to tell me my A-level results but getting cut off as he was explaining he'd misunderstood his own results.  Was a very long wait for the envelope with the official results...

Chuffy, we never made a plan.. it was "will you be out on Saturday?", "yeah".  "cool, I'll see you in town".

Then commence the pub crawl to figure out where they'd be.  I lived in a small city, only 300 pubs but probably about ten of them were good candidates as to where everyone might be.  There'd always be people you knew in these pubs and you'd have a pint with them before moving on.

Sometimes, you'd give up and stay at that pub and after a while, they'd all arrive in anyway.