I found my old beepers last night. They were stashed in a corner of my drawer. Just when I thought I have thrown them all away. The very first beeper is a small black NEC, with very limited functions. One could only page for me, there was no voicemail or messaging function. It was a birthday gift from my first guy, so he could "summon me at will", in his exact words. That period of time it was quite a big thing for any student to have a beeper, let alone a mobile.
It was supposed to make it easier for friends and family to reach me whenever I was not at home, although the troublesome thing was that whenever someone paged for me, they would have to wait until I returned the call. And if I was outside, at times it could be a hassle trying to find and then queue and wait at a public phone booth. Even worse if I was on a long bus ride and could not return the call immediately. Plus my parents did not like paging for me, "like a call girl".
After the end of that relationship, I changed the beeper to a red arpeggio, because I liked the ring tones whenever someone paged for me. Then when it became necessary for people to leave me voice messages, I changed it again to a white Motorola. And when the messaging service came out where people could call the operator and send a text message directly to one's pager, I upgraded again, to a lavendar Motorola. Within five years, I changed four beepers.
I still remember my beeper number though, although it had been terminated when I switched to a mobile phone permanently. Needless to say, all the voice messages which I saved up had also been deleted when I terminated the service. But the text messages still remained. And when I put in a battery last night to test the beepers, I came across the text messages. Needless to say, since a beeper had only limited space, I could only save a limited number of messages, and all the saved messages were from my ex. Come to think of it, he could actually call the operator just to send me embarrassing messages, wonder if he ever felt embarrassed or what the operator actually thought?
But those text messages were not the mushiest though. The voicemails he left for me were worse. Last night, I suddenly recall some of the more embarrassing, albeit sweetest, voicemails he left for me, both in my pager and later in my mobile. Plus the embarrassing texts in my mobile later on. Wonder why I suddenly thought about these again? Somehow the thoughts triggered off a song, one of my favourites from one of my favourite bands.
It was supposed to make it easier for friends and family to reach me whenever I was not at home, although the troublesome thing was that whenever someone paged for me, they would have to wait until I returned the call. And if I was outside, at times it could be a hassle trying to find and then queue and wait at a public phone booth. Even worse if I was on a long bus ride and could not return the call immediately. Plus my parents did not like paging for me, "like a call girl".
After the end of that relationship, I changed the beeper to a red arpeggio, because I liked the ring tones whenever someone paged for me. Then when it became necessary for people to leave me voice messages, I changed it again to a white Motorola. And when the messaging service came out where people could call the operator and send a text message directly to one's pager, I upgraded again, to a lavendar Motorola. Within five years, I changed four beepers.
I still remember my beeper number though, although it had been terminated when I switched to a mobile phone permanently. Needless to say, all the voice messages which I saved up had also been deleted when I terminated the service. But the text messages still remained. And when I put in a battery last night to test the beepers, I came across the text messages. Needless to say, since a beeper had only limited space, I could only save a limited number of messages, and all the saved messages were from my ex. Come to think of it, he could actually call the operator just to send me embarrassing messages, wonder if he ever felt embarrassed or what the operator actually thought?
But those text messages were not the mushiest though. The voicemails he left for me were worse. Last night, I suddenly recall some of the more embarrassing, albeit sweetest, voicemails he left for me, both in my pager and later in my mobile. Plus the embarrassing texts in my mobile later on. Wonder why I suddenly thought about these again? Somehow the thoughts triggered off a song, one of my favourites from one of my favourite bands.
I Have A Dream ~ Abba
I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
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1 comments:
Beepers, huh? I remember those being a hit during the 90s. Everywhere I went, I saw a group of people paging others. And just like beepers were a hit back then, today's mobile phones with greater performance are easily seen in public.
Elliott Bellaire
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