YOUR FIRST CELLPHONE

TRUE STORIES OF CELLPHONES PAST

- ELISABETH GARRY

I got my first cellphone when I was around 14. It was my father’s, actually; I just got to carry it when I went anywhere without my parents, and he didn’t want it in the first place, so it became de facto mine. It was a Samsung SPH-N400—an old Samsung flip phone. In any case, what I had was a little blue block about two inches wide and four inches tall with a retractable antenna and a bright green screen whose pixels you could count on your fingers. It had the game Snake and it took me 30 minutes to draft a single text message—a capability I didn’t even know the phone had for the first several months it was in my possession. I loved it dearly.

I switched to an iPhone 5c in 2014—my first iPhone and first smartphone—and never looked back. Until now, that is. As I reminisce about my little flip phone (which must have had phone anxiety even worse than mine, given how often it dropped calls), I can’t help but wonder if you think back as fondly on your first cellphones. So, I asked, and you answered! Below, find some of my favorite stories readers shared about their introduction to mobile telecommunications.

Many of you had much earlier introductions to cellular technology:

“Back in the ‘80s, I convinced the owner of the company [I worked for] to invest in a Motorola “bag phone” for me as I traveled throughout New England as a sales manager. I had one account in Presque Isle, Maine on the Canadian border and still remember getting out of my car while it was snowing and placing the bag phone on the roof to make a cell call to my office! 500 miles away and 6 1/2 hour drive! At the time it seemed like an Alexander Graham Bell moment!” -Wade