The 20-something daughter of one of my wife's

[MineralMan]

Cousins visited us not long ago. She's thinking of a career as a writer, and that's what my wife and I do for a living. I made dinner and we talked about the perils of writing for a living

Anyhow, she's young and I'm 71 years old now. So while we were talking, my cell phone rang. I flipped it open and checked who was calling. My wife's relative laughed at my flip phone, and told me it was really old school.

So I explained why I use that kind of cell phone. It's small, fits in my shirt pocket and the battery lasts almost forever on a charge. "But it's an antique!"

So, I went downstairs and got something out of a closet and brought it upstairs. It was an old Motorola bag phone. "No, this is an antique. I got it in 1990, so I'd have a phone with me on the road. I could have any cell phone I wanted, but my little flip phone is perfect for my life."

People often misinterpret other people's choices, based on preconceptions.

[elleng]

1. Right.

Thankfully my daughters haven't laughed at MY flip phone (recently.) 71 here too. Let's stick together!

[No Vested Interest]

2. Flip phones here as well, and I'm more than 71.

I like my flip phone, know how to use it, and, besides, I'm maxed out technologically.

[NBachers]

3. I always thought my Slider phone was pretty clever. Mid-'80's, i had the trunk-mount rig

with the transmission hump holder / charger. Real iron-age.

[KittyWampus]

4. i have a flip phone too

[kentuck]

6. Me, too.

[2naSalit]

14. Me too!

[Doitnow]

20. Me, too. I use it for emergencies and I've given out the number

to no one, so no one ever calls me on that phone, which is just fine with me. I go for walks and see so many people attached to their phones as if they can't even enjoy a minute's peace for themselves but feel they have to be available no matter what or when. Poor them.

[pinboy3niner]

5. Roger McGuinn once did a car phone song that quickly became outdated

I saw him perform it (along with his Byrds hits) when it came out on his 'Back from Rio' album.

[No Vested Interest]

7. The early Seinfeld reruns feature Jerry and cast using a huge cordless phone.

That always reminds me just how old those shows really are.
The humor is timeless, though.

[pinboy3niner]

10. Some things never go out of style...

[guillaumeb]

8. You are truly cutting edge.

My only phone is on the wall.

[FuzzyRabbit]

15. People sometimes laugh when I tell them I still use the rotary phone

in my living room. I tell them it was built in 1942 and it still works perfectly. Then I ask "is your smart phone going to be working 75 years from now?"

[guillaumeb]

31. Now I feel cutting edge!

Our wall phone has much better reception than any cell phone I have used, and our plan, which has not been offered to new customers in many years, is cheaper.

[MineralMan]

30. I have an old oak farm-style wall phone on

the wall in my kitchen. I installed the guts of a rotary dial phone in it, and it's plugged in and works just fine. I kept the old earpiece and microphone as is, and they still work, too. It rings the old bell, too, which lets everyone know that someone has called on the landline.

What's funny is getting someone young to answer it when it rings. Most people can't immediately figure out what to do. They don't understand holding the earpiece up to their ear while talking into the mic on the wooden box. The rotary dial is inside, so you have to open the front of the whole thing to dial.

I have several antique phones connected to my landline service. Different ones in each room. We rarely make calls or answer them on that phone line, but I keep it for nostalgia's stake. I have a candlestick rotary dial phone from the 1920's on the end table in the living room where I sit. I do answer it sometimes, after looking at the cordless phone that's also there to check the Caller ID.

[guillaumeb]

32. We also have caller ID on our answering machine.

Very useful when we get the numerous calls from people selling.

[Afromania]

9. hey now

I may not be quite as Vintage as you guys but there is nothing wrong with flip phones. I rocked an old Razer I picked up used on Ebay in 2009 or so right up until my carrier dropped spectrum support for it late in 2015. People laughed at me and my old flip phone but it was a real trooper. It stayed charged forever, survived short and medium drops and did exactly what I wanted it to do, make phone calls.

[femmocrat]

11. I finally broke down and got an iPhone.

I really miss my flip phone. At least it had numbers that I could tap on. The numbers on the iPhone are so small, I use my pinkie and still get typos.

I got the iPhone for the camera.... stupid. My old digital camera took much nicer pictures.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Xipe Totec]

12. I owned an HP LX200 and a Palm V

Back when they were state of the art.

[3catwoman3]

13. I loved my litle flip phone.

It reminded me of a Star Trek TOS communicator

I upgraded to a smart phone when our older son went off to college, knowing that he would be much more likely to respond to a text that either a call or e-mail. True to form, his phone's voicemail message says, "Hi. This is Taylor. Don't leave a message."

OK, then.

[Maynar]

24. Wife still has one, the speaker button I call the "Star Trek button."

Flip the phone open, press the button then resist the urge to say, "Kirk to Enterprise."

Not as easy as it sounds.

[elmac]

16. Still have a bag phone somewhere

ahh, the analog days. Few people realized how easy it was to hack those bag phones to turn them into cell phone receivers, pickup any conversation on the 800MHZ band, Radio shack scanners too. I bet every cop shop had one but would never admit it do to Federal laws against eavesdropping.

[madamesilverspurs]

17. Best thing about my little flip phone --

NO butt dialing! Evah.


.

[FailureToCommunicate]

18. You're in good company...

?a412320

[mnhtnbb]

19. My 80 year old friend makes fun of me at 65 with my flip phone. She loves her iphone

but I don't need the internet with me all the time. I don't give out my cell phone number. Use it when I'm out of the house and traveling.
Can send/receive texts.

I managed for years without a cell phone and I'm quite happy with my flip phone.

[Grown2Hate]

21. I have a friend that's 35 yrs old, only has a flip phone, and no social media. He texts me

about once a year (not a big texter, and having to fight through T9, I don't blame him). It's always a classic because he never quite gets it right. This year was my favorite ever: an enthusiastic, "GO CUBES!" during the World Series.

I don't know why I posted this... guess the flip phone just reminded me of it.

[JDC]

22. I just responded to this from my phone

To each his/her own

[DawgHouse]

23. I hope you told her to get off your lawn!

[busterbrown]

25. Mineral man...

You have been the go to guy over the past couple of days..

Keep it up please....

Very few around here have the understanding of how govt operates the way you do.

I love the story above..but you’re my go to guy around here..

Please keep us focused on the dangers of this Trump Presidency with regards to how he is insanity is eroding the stability of our govt. and especially what our options are.. i really enjoyed your warning to
employees of govt. workers in regulation agencies.

[LisaM]

26. I still have one.

It gets good reception, better than my smart phone.

[HassleCat]

27. Good old bag phones

Put out five watt signal, enough to fry your gonads if you let it sit on the car seat next to you. Got so hot you wanted to call the fire department.

[TheBlackAdder]

28. I've never heard of anyone accidentally butt dialing with a flip phone :-D

.


The funny thing is when those candy bar phones butt dial, the owner is oblivious while the one called hears everything.


.

[HoneyBadger]

29. In the age of the NSA being in your phone 24x7

2g phones like the flips will be in again as they limit the kind of data that the NSA can steal, no passwords or nudies for instance.

Just ask Lindsey Graham.

https://www.google.com/amp/rare.us/story/sorry-lindsey-the-nsa-can-still-spy-on-your-flip-phone/amp/

[Orsino]

33. "Trump may be seventy years old and mentally impaired...

...but his racism is still intact and fits both my TV screen and my bigoted lifestyle."

Okay, I got nothin'.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

34. I'm surprised a phone from 1990 still works

I have flip phones too... but newer than that. Weren't the 1990 cells huge? I can't get a cell to last more than maybe 6 years. They crapout after a while.

[MineralMan]

38. I don't think that old bag phone still works.

I keep it for the nostalgia.

My flip phone is only two years old. The old bag cell phone is from 1990. I don't think it would be supported by any current cell carrier, really. It was barely supported back then. It was easy to find places with no cell phone signal at that time.

[MineralMan]

39. Motorola introduced the MicroTAC flip phone

in 1989. I couldn't afford one then, and my cell phone carrier offered the bag phone free with a two-year contract in 1990. The Motorola MicroTAC was the smallest phone available at that time:



Here's the bag phone, also from Motorola:

[hunter]

35. I have a flip phone.

I use my laptop for texting.

Sure, my flip phone can send texts, my kids could quickly compose texts on it when it was their phone, the words auto-magically completed, but I've never had cause to learn that skill.

When I worked in a blood bank we had a lunchbox sized cell phone and voice pagers. There was only one phone and it was carried by the person most likely to need it, or the person dealing with the most critical situation.

Our children will never know the adrenaline rush of not quite hearing the voice on the pager and frantically driving around to find a public phone booth, or asking a business to use their phone, only to discover the page was something trivial.

[Tikki]

36. My husband has a new flip phone.

Also, a Senior Citizen.


Tikki

[eleny]

37. My husband uses a flip phone for the convenient size, too

He figures that my smartphone is always available for what it can do. Cant argue with that!

[laserhaas]

40. Looking for a writer

What kind of stuff is ahe seeking to ficus on?

[MineralMan]

41. Ficus, eh? Maybe she'll write about house plants.

She doesn't know yet what she wants to write about. Heck, she doesn't know what she wants to do this weekend. We neither encouraged or discouraged her. We just talked about our experiences as career professional writers. I started in 1974. My wife, who is 11 years younger than I am, started in the mid-1980s. We're still writing for a living.

[laserhaas]

42. Congrats. I learned that the famous Abe Lincoln quote

also applues to the tell of tales.

He who represents himself has a fool for a client applies to law dynamics and writing your own tale.

In our eToys case, Im victimized by both paradigms.

Others listen 1000 times more...when another tells the tales.

Wish her well.....