We were down at the school last week picking up our grandson. He is off this year to the great adventure of Kindergarten. We were waiting in the parking lot for the children to come out. We were with a group of parents and grandparents and caregivers all waiting to pick up the children. The children come out as an escorted group and are then released when the people picking them up have been identified. It is a much better way of doing things then when classes got out at my school many years ago. In those days, a bell rang, and the children just bolted for the doors. These are different times.

Directly across from us last week, in the parking on the pavement at the school, was a group of about a dozen people just like us. We were all there waiting patiently for pickup time. These dozen people had something in common besides waiting. Most of them were on their cell phones. It was amazing and a bit startling but odd enough that I mentioned it to my wife. All these people had phones up to their ears at the same time. What on earth could they be talking about? They must surely be very important.

I shouldn’t be critical because I have played in that movie for sure. Although I am mostly retired now, I still rely on my phone. It is a terrible habit when used to excess. I actually bring my phone to church with the sound turned off. I am not above clearing messages while the priest says Mass. Maybe God won’t notice. I would hate to get to “the pearly gates” and find St. Peter sitting at his judgement desk with my cellphone in front of him.

Cell phones have, of course, taken over the world. I knew they would. The first time I really understood that was when I was in Dublin, Ireland back in 2003. Ireland then was in the middle of that economic boom that was known as the “Celtic Tiger.” It was a period of rapid economic growth fueled by low taxes, an educated workforce, and technology. One of the first things I noticed in Dublin that day near St. Stephen’s Green was cellphones. EVERYBODY walking down the street or waiting for a bus seemed to be on their cell phone. They all looked so busy and purposeful and earnest. It was an amazing sight.

Now I did have a company issued cell phone back in Newfoundland at that time, but it was work related rather than just total lifestyle. That was to come later. In news we were in the vanguard of people in Newfoundland and Labrador with cellphones. Those early cell phone models were monsters weighing in at well over a pound. They were big. I didn’t walk around St. John’s with my cell phone up to my ear all day long, but I was proud to have one all the same.

Eventually the cell phone did take over my life. Mind you I thought it wonderful at the time, and I loved it but looking back now I know the first thing it did was expand my workday by several hours. I no longer had to go to the office to begin work. I was on the job and on the phone on the way to work and the way home from work and everywhere else in between from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning. I considered myself lucky. I am aware now of wise people who shut down their phones on the weekend. I never could do that, and I still can’t. My wife makes me turn it off at dinner.

I was visiting a friend in St. John’s once at the height of my cell phone days and I had with me at that time in his home a cellphone and a charger AND a police radio scanner. My friend said “Geez, you can’t just come in for a beer can you? Do you have to set up a command post.”

I am mostly over that now but not completely. One of the big adjustments to not being in a working news situation is the change in sound. I still get a jolt from fire engine sounds and police and ambulance sirens. My pulse also quickens when my cell phone rings. The other thing that rests inside me is a word association thing. When I hear the word “Dublin” or “Ireland” the first word that comes into my head is CELL PHONE. Such is the price of addiction.

You can contact Jim Furlong at [email protected]