Old School

Well, helloooo, Posse!  This is NOT a perfume post (just sayin’), though on this rainy day I am reveling in Gin Blossom by Love and Toast (Margot Elena, who appears to be no relation to JCE, alas (can you imagine that bloodline?).  Rather, it’s a Musing of sorts about Old School communication and data storage.  If you have no idea what I might be talking about, feel free to stick around and learn some history.  Otherwise… GET OFF MY LAWN!

I got a call this morning from our local mechanic, looking for the number of my gal pal (he’s working on her truck); seems his phone has decided to purge (!) phone numbers that haven’t been used in eons!  We chatted about the Skynet-ness of it for a minute and he said “I told my wife I need to get a Rolodex as backup, just in case”.

Rolodex
AND GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

He’s 47.

I was visiting a friend this past week and was startled to find her using a Franklin Covey planner (!) to keep track of her house building project!

She’s 56.

I am ‘in alt’ as Miss Austen would say.  Nope, I am NOT a technophobe  – I wear my phone OUT with photos and texting, etc – but I do have Luddite tendencies and I like trying to keep at least some semblance of control over how I use technology – and how it uses me.  Also, writing (pen to paper) is said to help continue the constant rewiring of your brain, keeping it sharper and your memory more intact and connected to everyday tasks, more than tapping intel into your phone.  It is said.  We’ll see.  I am not going to be writing my Posse posts by hand (and certainly not with a quill pen, though it sounds romantic (for about 32 seconds).  But for lists and notes?  Writing is, for me, the way to go!

I remember when Filofax was all the rage and we all carried our heavy zippered cases with notes scribbled on every page of every working day.  I still have mine – all of them – and it’s a totally different feeling to leaf through them (as opposed to scrolling through my phone).  Names and numbers that once meant everything to me (or at least to my wallet).  Business cards! stuck in the pockets.   I am starting a new reno project and I think I’ll press one of them into service (as with dresses, it’s always fabulous IF THEY HAVE POCKETS! and they (or at least the refillable pages) do!

Oooh!  After The Filofax Years I graduated to a way less cumbersome setup – the Mead Five Star 5×7″ notebook WITH POCKETS!  It served me well for several decades and I figure y’all can stack the scores of notebooks as my funeral pyre – I don’t toss them because evvvery now and then I’ll need to find some intel… and booyaka! there it is, hidden in one of the notebooks (which are stored chronologically (or thereabouts).  It has pockets!!!  did I tell you?

It has POCKETS!!!

Update:  I decided against using one of my old Filofaxes because I needed some flexibility and a bigger size, so I grabbed a 9×13″ planner with room for notes! It’s big enough that I can clip papers to it (it’s not (or rarely) going anywhere out of my house ).  I’m loving it – though … full disclosure here:  I’m still using the living daylights out of my phone (calendar, notes, alarms, etc) – I am just taking an odd pleasure in coming back to the planner and transferring all that data into it!

Soooo… what about you?  Are you a writer/scribbler? Full on Phone? Or a mashup ?  My friends and I (all of a Certain Age) are intrigued by the number of much-younger people turning to Old School tech!  What’s next?  Rotary phones en vogue again?

N.b.  I was glancing through my mother’s old address book (which she used as a Filofax of sorts) and came upon this letter from a neighbor who’d recently moved to MN  – reading the lovely, chatty missive brought back so many memories, one of them being the indignation my mother felt at being sent a TYPED! letter!  O, the humanity!

I wonder what my mother would make of current technology?