Heart and Mind

Leave a Note

Here on the blog, I talk a lot about things from bygone eras that are no longer relevant in our modern world because of technology. And I'm not necessarily only talking about cassettes and mimeograph machines—actual tangible items that have been replaced by other things—although I certainly talk about those types of items. But I also like talking about intangibles, like practices we no longer involve ourselves in, often because of technological evolutions.

For instance, when I was young, my mother always used to instruct me to "leave a note" when I was leaving the house and there was no one else around to inform of my whereabouts.

So I did. We all did. The kids did it for the parents, the parents for the kids and for each other, as well. The kitchen counter was like our home intranet, dispensing pertinent and relevant information on pieces of scrap paper. You'd come home and find messages like:

"Went to Joe's."

or

"Ran to the store, be back soon."

Sometime in the 1980s, we go one of those under-the-kitchen-counter radios with a cassette player/recorder, and it had these little buttons on it that one could push to turn on these little lights that indicated that there were messages to be heard on there. I think it was called a "Message Center," and the idea was that in addition to listening to the finest in AM/FM radio programming, this machine would now replace the scraps of paper. So you could actually leave an audio message in your kitchen for someone to listen to. It basically was like voice-mail that can only be accessed in your kitchen, recorded on a regular audio cassette.

We never really did use that machine much in that capacity once the novelty of it wore off, because that was one of those things where the technology really hadn't caught up to the concept just yet. Like, it was still easier and not much different to leave a handwritten note on the back of a piece of junk mail that was laying around.

In the late 90s, my wife and I got an answering machine with digital recording (no tape) and the ability to leave a "memo." Basically the update to the machine from the 80s, this was a phone answering machine where you had the option ("memo") to leave the message without calling it, but by being in the same room. So we would leave our, "I went out for a jog" style messages on there. (Not that I ever went jogging, but she did....) That machine also could be checked remotely. Unlike that "message center" from the 1980s, we did actually use this one. It was more functional and easier.

But these days, no one leaves notes at home, audio or handwritten. Cell phones have omitted that need.

First of all, because of cell phones, it's rare to not know where people in the family are at any given time. Most people check in throughout the day. "I'm just leaving the store now, I think we're going to run over to the library before they close." So, when I get home and there's no car in the driveway, I usually reason, "She must still be at the library," because I usually have been kept somewhat in the loop.

But then there are days where I really don't know because I haven't been in touch. And when I get home to the empty house then, guess what's the first thing I do? Cell phone out....speed dial....ring....."Hey. How's it going? Where are you?"

One thing is certain. I don't even check for a note. Why would anyone leave me a note? They know they can call me if they're running "alarmingly late" (the term we'll use to describe that amount of time that elapses when one starts getting worried because they don't know where someone is), and they also know that I can call them any time I want to and, barring bad cell coverage, they'll be able to check in.

I think it's interesting, though, to remember the old days of leaving a note, because people like to say that the modern day human is more obsessive and neurotic and feels the need to be "reachable" 24-7 so as to make sure everyone is accounted for and everything is OK. And I agree that that is 100% true. But the cell phone age has only exacerbated a problem that was always there to begin with. We just couldn't do much better than "leaving a note" on the kitchen counter. And when people didn't oblige, it made us uncomfortable and annoyed, even back then.

I think it's also interesting because the more I think about it, the more it reminds me of how routine it was back then to come home to an empty house and not really know what the status of everyone was... until you read the notes left behind. Somehow it all worked out, though.

posted by Steve @ 5:01 PM