Come on Join the Phone Ride

It's come to my attention that perhaps I'm stuck in the 80s.

Remember those days; when fashion choices were dictated by the edict 'the louder the better' and cell phones, if they were to be found, were as big as your arm.

I remember my first glimpse of a cell phone in an ex boyfriend's Dad's car.  It was the size of a small microwave and perhaps capable of transmitting as much radioactivity when making a call as when nuking your Michelina's dinner. I was in awe of the gadget, its rubberized casing, the small yellow buttons, the way it felt when you held it to your ear (hello, agent Estabrooks here, over.) I used it once, just to say hi to my Mum.  It was novel, and just like the phones of today, very much a status symbol.

I thought of that phone the other night while attending, er rocking out to, Roxette.

Oh yes, I joined the joyride.  While crooning to my favourite Roxette ballad I looked out to a sea of lit up phones (read here how long it's been since I've been to a concert!) The glowing Apple icons, those lit up screens connected us all and likely kept some hard core rockers from lighting their own amply hair-sprayed hair on fire.  I could have never lit up a concert with that ole rectangle microwave behemoth, let alone take a picture of the famed rocker.

Also of note was the sheer number of phones at the concert, and I suppose anywhere these days.  I guess when I'm in a large public venue, like the Saddledome, its all the more obvious how ubiquitous Apple products are among the masses.  I mean everybody has one. If you weren't swaying with your phone, you were definitely using it to communicate some *vitally* important information to someone, somewhere, and dear god, hope they were listening.  And why not, I suppose, why not let all of your hundreds of facebook, twitter followers in on your dirty little Roxette secret?

So little old me, phone-less wonder, I rocked out with my sister in law's phone to join the "phone ride." It was good, but I could have rocked just as well solo, thanks.

The 80s were good, they were loud, but nary did a cell phone ring, unless you were out too late in your boyfriend's Dad's car.