They were a symbol of status-a person of importance who needed to potentially be reached 24/7-such as doctors and drug dealers 😂!
I finished medical school in 1985, family medicine residency in 1988, and a geriatric fellowship in 1990.
A beeper was on my belt, or in my shirt pocket, through all.
During residency, I did come to dread 4 numbers: 2050.
This was the emergency room extension and always meant there was a patient who needed to be evaluated for possible admission.
Once, after finishing a 36-hour obstetrics (OB) tour, I was driving home when my beeper notified me of the need to return to the OB ward stat.
I was more than half-way home, realized I had forgotten to change the name and beeper number of my replacement on the on-call board and started to speed in order to get to my apartment asap.
I was almost immediately pulled over by police.
I hopped out of my car, frantically told the officer what was happening, and was allowed to get back in my car and speed the rest of the way home with a police escort.
If out and about when on call, a pants pocket was always filled with change in order to use a pay phone to call whatever extension I was “beeped to.”
Finally, around 1988, during my fellowship, I had access to a Motorola portable phone when on call. I was participating in the call rotation with the family medicine faculty.
Whomever was on call would take possession of the shoe-sized phone, with two possible antennas (one with a 25-mile radius, and the other a 50-mile radius), and the shoebox-sized charger. A 10-hour charge would allow for approximately 30-minutes of talk-time.
A beeper was still my constant companion, but the absence of a pocket full of change clanging allowed me to be somewhat less conspicuous.
I also did not need to always look for restaurants that had a pay-phone nearby.
So, therefore, I’ve obviously been high-tech since at least the 1980s! 😂.
I’m sure many will be impressed.
Makes me laugh!
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