The future was now

In 1992, while working for a newspaper in Northeast Texas, I interviewed a man whose company sold portable telephones. A portable phone is not the same as a wireless phone. Far from it.

A portable phone required a carrier, a box that held the phone and all kinds of electronic things and big flashlight-style batteries. When used in a vehicle, the phone could be plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. A cigarette lighter socket is what on newer cars is called the DC  access, where you can plug in your cell phone or laptop or whatever other electronic device you carry in your car or truck.

The portable phone was heavy. Here is a link to a 1988 car phone.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184657528352?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=184657528352&targetid=1068323855430&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9012293&poi=&campaignid=10454522294&mkgroupid=104612011580&rlsatarget=pla-1068323855430&abcId=2146002&merchantid=114155005&gclid=Cj0KCQiAv6yCBhCLARIsABqJTjZ-y4k1jTX4g88_z7y0vail2G1GHN7vNo4p4HeNv9UoXk2XkGko5CkaAinrEALw_wcB

A typical portable phone gave the user 30 minutes of talk on batteries and required a charge of 10 hours.

One thing the phone company man said impressed me at the time and has remained in my mind.

“Not too long from now,” the man said, “you can be reached anywhere in the world. You can be hunting big horn sheep in Alaska, and someone can contact you by phone.” 

I thought: “If I am hunting in Alaska, or anywhere else, I don’t want anybody calling me on a phone.”

Like a lot of other people, I still think the same thing.