If there's one electronic device that has changed our lives and that we've seen evolve over the years, it's the telephone. From public phones on every street corner that required coins or cards to work, we've gone to mobile phones with internet access, allowing us to make video calls, manage our bank accounts, shop online, order taxis—everything. Without a doubt, it's one of humanity's greatest inventions, and it still surprises us today.
To be honest, I have many stories related to the telephone. Like when my first boyfriend lived in another city, and it was the only way we could communicate: he would call me every day at 7 p.m. and the call would end at 9 p.m. My ear would hurt afterward, but I was happy to talk to him. I also have stories about how we would call the radio every day to request songs or because there were contests, and several times, an artist would be invited to a television channel or radio program, and I was lucky enough to speak with them and ask them a question.
But if there's one story I remember clearly, it's how we were punished by our parents for not making a phone call. Back then, we were used to going to the movies, but that time the tickets had gone up in price, and for some strange and crazy reason, we'd spent all our money on them. Our plan was to call our parents at the end of the movie so they could pick us up, but when we went to make the call, the phone was broken. It was after 9 p.m., and the only thing we could think of was to walk around and look for a working phone.
We walked and walked, two of my sisters and I, but we couldn't find a phone. When we finally found one, we called, but no one answered at home. Obviously, when my parents saw the time and realized we hadn't arrived, they went out desperately to look for us, leaving the house empty. When we got to the movie theater and saw that it was already closed and there was no one around, my parents panicked, imagining the worst.
According to them, they started asking around, but no one had seen us. They got in the car and drove around the city, looking for us, but when we didn't get an answer at home, we went back to the theater, assuming our parents had gone out looking for us.
We sat in a plaza across from the theater and waited. Thank God, a local man, whom my parents had asked about us, saw us and told us that our parents were looking for us. He also let us use his home phone to call. It was around 11 p.m. when my dad answered the call immediately. His voice was obviously relieved to hear us, but also angry. In the end, we were grounded and couldn't go to the movies for a long time.
Obviously, only our generation can tell a story like this. Nowadays, none of this would have happened because everyone, no matter how humble or poor, carries their cell phone everywhere they go. Back then, we had to have coins to make a call or hope the phone dispensed them, but that's a story for another day.
