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…in baby girl’s hand as a handset rather than an earpiece. Who’d da thunk an earpiece would make a perfectly fitting handset for a toddler?

Hey! Wait! No fair! I had to wait until I reached the magical Sweet 16 for my Trimline phone (remember those? how retro!) in the mid-70’s. My 22 month old granddaughter already gets to have a bluetooth earpiece?

Just kidding! She’s using Dad’s bluetooth earpiece paired with his iPhone to chit chat with Mommy while she’s away from home working. At the same time, Dad’s using the iPhone to take her picture to share with all of us. My, my…we’ve come such a long way with telephones, haven’t we?

I tried to locate an old picture taken in the mid 60’s of my younger brother standing in his high chair in the kitchen playing with the wall mounted rotary phone to share, but couldn’t find it. Even that era of telephone history was a point where we had come a long way from the wood box wall mounted crank phone the Waltons and all their neighbors used. Come to think of it, didn’t they yell, “can you hear me now?!” on their phone, too?

I remember having to wait our turn to use the phone at my Grandparent’s home. It wasn’t a matter of waiting for another family member to get off the phone, though. You had to wait until the party that shared the line aka a party line gave up the shared phone line.

And the phone numbers…EVERGREEN6-3796 rather than 386-3796. Was that supposed to make it easier to remember phone numbers? Before that you had to rely on someone who might have been known as Myrtle the local operator to connect you with the party you were calling.

Couldn’t tell a secret because that’s likely how the rest of the town found out about it because Myrtle could hear your conversation, too. What a career! I bet the National Enquirer would love to be able to hire a few Myrtles and use that old technology today, huh? Especially in Washington DC and state capitals around the country during election season.

Have you got any pictures of family or friends using old phones? I think it would be interesting and fun to see some of the old phones in use. If you do, let’s create a blogging web of telephone history. Leave a comment here with a link to the blog post where you’ve shared your telephone history, memories, and pictures.

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Ahhhhh, yes, I was awakened this morning, gently fortunately, by Twitter notifications coming from my Blackberry which was on my nightstand. I’m new to using Twitter so I really haven’t formed a full opinion yet. However, I must say it was rather nice to be awakened by a gentle sound alerting me to the many “Good mornings!” popping up on Twitter from across the country.

I signed up for Twitter months ago, but couldn’t quite figure out just what all the hullabaloo was about until I discovered a bunch of my cyber friends and acquaintances were also on Twitter. Now I can see how useful this little tool can be and fun at the same time. After Twittering over the weekend I see Twitter can be a useful tool when you want to make an business or personal announcement, have a question, or simply need to know you’re not alone in the world while in your home office or tethered to some mobile device.

How else is Twitter useful? Got any suggestions? What do you like most about Twitter?

***Update*** Seems Twitter is a really useful tool in times of an emergency such as the LA earthquake that hit a bit ago. Lots of Twitters relaying their experience and notifying family & friends of their well-being.

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I don’t seem to lately. But if you keep up with ProBlogger Darren Rowse you just might find out a way to squeeze in a productive blogging hour here and there by reading all the responses to his question, “If you only had one hour a day to blog what would you spend it doing?”

Appears spending time commenting on other blogs is a popular suggestion as it is of utmost importance to network and develop an online presence outside of your own blog. Tweaking your blog is much more time consuming so most seem to prefer to allow much more time for that blogging task. I REALLY need to spend some time in that area. MUST try to find some time in the near future to update a lot of things here.

Now that I have a Blackberry maybe I can mobile it now and then. At least spend some time jotting down thoughts and ideas for posts whenever I’m out and about and stuck in waiting mode somewhere such as standing in line at a checkout. Blogging while sitting in the waiting room of your doctor’s office might help divert your mind to more positive thoughts. For the many now resorting to some form of mass transit, that would be a great way to use that time of your day much more productively.

I’m checkin’ out the Twitter craze, too. Wanna follow me? Oh, and if anybody knows how to fix my Twitter box over there on the right sidebar please let me know. I’d very much appreciate it.

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