My (very-soon-to-be) four year old son asks "Pappa, what's a Walkie-Talkie?"He has been studying a small piece of lego that appeared in a set he just got. Having just asked what it was, and still not understanding, he asks more questions.
After two or three more answers ("It is a radio", "It lets two people talk to each other", "It uses batteries and radio waves", ...) he ponders for a moment.
Then insight strikes, "Oh! It's like a cell phone."
"Yes, exactly, it's like a cell phone." (I wince internally. How can I explain that cellphones are thousand of times more complex. How they depend on cellular infra structure, transmission towers, computers. How they work across the world, while walkie-talkies sometimes have problems reaching across the block.) "Yes" I say. "Just like a cell phone."
I feel very old.
Then he looks at me with a worried look. "They are not real, are they, pappa?"
"No, they are real."
Looking at his eyes I can tell that he isn't quite sure he believes me. Why use this clumsy device when you can just use the phone? I don't even think he realizes that some phones uses wires, as all we have are wireless handsets and cell phones, except for a base-station in the kitchen.
Some day I will have to explain it to him that once upon a time, just like there was a time when there was only mail, no email, there was a time when all phones had wires...
Until then I just sit here and feel old.
1 comment:
Johan, you might not have to tell Einar about the wired phones after all. He actually discovered them when he was in Sweden at the age of two.
Not that there are many of those left around here either, but since he spent his time with us out in the countryside he got to see one of the quite old samples, a bulky old Bakelite thing. One day he watched his grandmother answer the phone and realized what it was she was doing with the strange gadget. Then the aha reaction dawned on him and he rushed out of the house. (Since the house is on a lake and he was two years old, the rest of us rushed after!)
He ran all the way to the play house filled with toys from his father's and aunts' childhood and got out the old toy phone that was in there. It was the typical old style phone with wire and with a dial instead of buttons. He must have secretely wondered what it was, and now he knew. Before we had even caught up with him he had picked up the receiver and started a "phoney" conversation into it.
So Johan, your son knows even more than you think he does!
Anna
(Einar's aunt, Johan's sister)
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