I resisted cellphones at first, but now I can watch my great-granddaughter grow up
.JPG "Photo circa December, 1983, The Miami Herald newsroom: The Miami Herald’s week-long “Isolation of Black Miami” series concluded Dec. 3, 1983. As part of the paper’s investigation, Two Herald reporters — one white and one black — found apparent racial discrimination at 24 of 45 Dade apartment complexes from North Miami to Coral Gables. In most cases, rental agents told the black reporter that no apartments were available for rent. The white reporter, arriving minutes later, was welcomed to vacant apartments, ready for occupancy. In this photo in The Herald newsroom at 1 Herald Plaza, Itabari Njeri is seated at the typewriter. Behind her are Ellyn Ferguson, Robert (Bob) Lowe and Michel du Cille; in the next row, from left, are Bea Hines, Michael Cottman, Jim Savage, Larry Bivins and Richard Morin; last row from left are Mark Silva, David Marcus, Paul Shannon and Carl Hiaasen.")
I never did care too much for gadgets and all the new, hard-for-me-to-learn technology that goes with them.
I started my career at The Miami Herald in 1966, when we used manual typewriters. When I became a reporter in 1970, like my favorite comic strip character Brenda Starr (I know — I just dated myself), we were still banging out our stories on them. I don’t know how I ever made a deadline.
One day, I walked into the newsroom and there were new electric typewriters on nearly every reporter’s desk. Some of the old timers like the late columnist Jack Kofoed refused to join the future and used his manual typewriter until he retired.
Like my younger co-workers, I welcomed the upgraded electric typewriter. I even got good at using it.
By the mid-1970s, computers entered the newsroom. At first, we still typed our stories on the electric typewriter, then passed them to a team of women who entered them into a computer.
Next came the day when every reporter got his/her own personal computer. We were moving into a new age of newspapering and I was managing to keep up. Barely.
By the time I retired in 2001, I was pretty efficient in working my stories on the computer. Oh, there was a lot I didn’t know, and I must admit, like Jack Kofoed, I didn’t want to know. But I managed.
I can still remember the pre-cellphone days when I was on assignment out of the office and saw something that I thought was newsworthy. Like Superman looking for a pay phone to change into his crime-fighting costume, I scrambled to find a pay phone to call the City Desk to report a possible story.
Then came the age of cellphones. I was not going to use one of those things. I’d heard that you could get brain damage from using one. I think I must have been the last person in my circle of friends to get a cellphone.
When I finally got one, somebody said I needed to learn how to text and receive text messages. Why? I just wanted a phone that I could make calls on and receive calls.
It was my great-grandson Jaylen, then about 5 (he’s now 13), who shamed me into learning how to text.
“It’s easy, Grandma,” he said one day, taking my phone from me. “Here, let me show you.”
I watched as his tiny fingers moved at jet-like speed, pushing one key and then another. Strange icons appeared on the tiny phone screen. I felt really, really old.
“Here,” he handed the phone back to me. “Now you do it.”
I texted my first message under the watchful and teaching eye of my very smart great-grandson. I’ve been texting ever since, finding it quite enjoyable and convenient.
So, now, not only have I learned to use the computer, but I even know a little bit about Facebook and Instagram, thanks to Jaylen.
Even so, sometimes I still long for the pretty little red flip phone that I accidentally dropped in the sewer one day. That little phone did everything I needed it to do — I received calls and I made calls. Period.
But this is a new season and the day of the flip phone is done. And even with my limited knowledge of the gadgets in this new age of technology, I find some gadgets indeed refreshing.
I can go to my Portal (oh, yes, I have one), thanks to my granddaughter Afra and her husband Bradford, who live in New York. With Portal, I can call them up and it’s just like being in the same room with them.
I could watch her baby grow when Afra was still pregnant, and see my newest great-grandchild when she arrived. Baby Loretta Jane was born in June and I have been able to watch her growth via Portal.
I spent last Christmas with Afra and Bradford and for one of my gifts, they gave me an American Airlines gift card — my fare to come to New York to be with them when the baby was born. COVID-19 put a stop to our plans. Being able to Portal them and to see my beautiful great-granddaughter is the next best thing to being there.
So, while I am still a bit stubborn about this new technology, I am writing this column from the comfort of my own home, in comfortable clothes and soft slides. I never thought I would be living in an age where all I have to do is click on a key, and my column would instantly appear on my editor’s computer.
Brenda Starr never had it so good.
This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 2:31 PM.