Evil cellphones
Where’s their head? Sitting in an airport gate house last week I put my book aside and looked around. I like watching people, noting that opposites might attract; or not.
People travel wearing things I wouldn’t wear to the mailbox. We have become so “politically correct” that we have become incorrect.
People were once compelled to comport themselves in an adult manner out of fear of being shamed. Now, people don’t seem to care and it is fodder for conversation, or at least speculation, who’s sensitivities are more precious.
I think I know the answer to that.
I scanned the four points of the gate and saw that every person was looking at a cellphone.
Some were playing games, others were sending and receiving text messages while others appeared to be watching a movie.
To my left a couple held hands watching movies and not the same one. I think it was more fun to watch the same movie with your date, sharing a bag of popcorn.
In these post 9-1-1 days it is not advisable to pop a popcorn bag in an airport gate house.
Turning to face the concourse I saw that people navigated the traffic using peripheral vision.
Is the virtual world that important? Many states adopted laws prohibiting cell use while driving but there are still drivers parked at traffic lights, unaware they own the green light until someone honks them back into the moment.
A few times I’ve considered dialing 9-1-1 to report a weaving driver. Whether they were distracted or impaired was impossible to tell and my calls in the past never brought blue lights.
The Kansas woman believes she can identify a married couple from across a dining room.
We were out to dinner, celebrating “Tuesday,” when she pointed out a couple actively engaged with their cellphones.
“They don’t need to text each other,” she observed, “so, each is chatting away with someone not at the table.” They’re married!
She believes you can tell a married couple in a restaurant, or anywhere else, because they don’t talk to each other.
I think that is accurate and the lesson learned from that was; “say something.”
Cellphones are here to stay and now they are on people’s wrist like Dick Tracy’s watch.
I almost long for the day when there was one telephone in a restaurant and a waiter paged patrons to the phone with; “Call for Philip Morris.”
Or whatever his name was.
Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@hotmail.com.