Timeline, mid 70's. Place, McGuire AFB, NJ. Was an NCOIC of a shop 4 military 3 civilians. Commander (in his infinite wisdom) decided to have issued to all NCOIC's assigned, a Motorola (registered tm) pocket pager (about 1/2 the total size of a cigarette pack). This pager had a top mounted button that stretched across the entire pager. When it went off, we were instructed to call in to a number for instructions. About 5 or 6 months later (the military ALWAYS wants to spend OPM), so they 'upgraded' to the later version (same size BUT it had an LCD screen on top with a much smaller button on the top to the right of the LCD screen). This screen would 'scroll' (verb) a message of various characters, so you could be 'directed' to call a specific number (upwardly improvable/improved?). Those things went off at ALL HOURS of the day or night and were not-so-affectionally known as a 'Strap-On Hemorrhoid' (which I take credit for developing that phrase) because every time it went off, it was a pain in the ***! Since then, I vowed to NEVER own a mobile/cell phone (and to this day with all the pressure of families/media/phone pimps), have stuck to my guns regarding this mass hysteria of being available 24/7 that has overtaken society and seems to now be a necessity(?). A simple local land-line phone (yes, wires to a phone inside a home, I know, shocking!), without any long-distance free phone calls, with an answering machine, is all we ever need. That is how we deal with the outrageous cost of the always improving (seemingly every 6 months or so) higher cost of this 'technology' that has infected all of society. There should be a drive by everyone to divorce themselves of this implied 'necessity', electronic cancer of society! CRUSH YOUR PHONES NOW AMERICA & WORLD!

There, I said it, and meant every word of the last sentence! I should make this a 'survey' here! LMAO!


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