You know when you were little and you went to your Grandparent’s house and listened for hours about what life was like, ‘in their day’? They used tin baths, outside loos and they didn’t have a telly. It sounded alien, especially the telly bit. I used to spend hours wondering just what they did to fill their time. Well, I suppose families were bigger back then.

It never occurred to me that stories I tell to my kids would make me appear just as archaic. I’m only 35, but it’s happened already. I was telling my 6 year old the story about how we didn’t have a telephone in our house when we were growing up. There was a phone booth at the end of the street that took 2 pence pieces and I used to organise my teenage social life from there. It would ring out and either be picked up by me at a pre-arranged time or by a local kid playing out. If it was the latter there would be a knock at the door of number 7, where I lived or a shout up at my bedroom window, “Helen, someone’s rung for you, it’s Louise.” I would put my shoes on and run down to the phone and spend hours racking up Louise’s Dad’s telephone bill.

My son was staring at me wide-eyed. He couldn’t believe I had to run, sometimes in pyjamas, out to a street corner just to use a telephone. Even at 6 he’s familiar with mobile phones, the Internet, even Sky Plus. It’s a whole world away from 4 channels, Commodore 64s and a public telephone caked in other people’s chewing gum.

Let’s go back to the mobile phone. How did we live without it? Seriously. How on earth did we ever actuallymanage to meet up with friends in the pub? Do you remember those days? No? Neither do I. It’s like the anxiety and fear of missing your mates or being late was just a bad dream. Just two years ago my partner and I were approved to be adoptive parents. This was big news for us. I sent the same happy text around to about 35 friends and loved hearing the joyous responses. Already, this sounds antiquated. Today, people I met 18 years ago when doing Camp America can find out what I’m having for tea in seconds. It’s madness. I love it. It makes me feel connected, in touch, up-to-date and increasingly very, very old.

I’m still in touch with Louise who used to call me on 3911, and yes, that was the whole number, through Facebook, obviously. This memory of being without modern communication methods is what our children are going to want to hear over and over again. And their children will want to hear their stories, although by then they’ll probably share them via some telepathic enabled chip implanted into the iris.

And they say children keep you young, pah!

Tags: Direct Response Agency, Facebook, Helen Lawson, Manchester Advertising Agency, Manchester Direct Marketing Agency, Mobile Phones, Multimedia Agency, Online Marketing Agency, Phone Booths, PPC Agency, Sales Promotion Agency, SEO Company, Sky Plus, Social Networking

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