Remember pagers?

[Davey Do]

One of my favorite things to do with my incredibly outstanding medical nurse wife Belinda is to watch a medical show, pause the DVD, and discuss what's taking place or recall a situation.

Last night Belinda and I were watching the first season of ER when a doctor's pager went off. I paused the DVD.

The summer of 1987, I was working as a scrub nurse at Weed Rover Township Hospital, was on call, and shopping at the Weed Rover Wal Mart when my pager went off. I immediately rushed to the payphones at the front of the store, put in my quarter, called the hospital, and hoped a bystander could hear me say, "An emergency C-section? And you need me right away? I'm just down the street at Wal Mart! I'll be there in five minutes!"

Yeah. Glory Days and pagers.

Got any?

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

867-5309 is another good one. It actually connects to a college student's dorm room here ������������������

in my hometown in Indiana, a girl in my class had this number, when the song came out. Her name: Jennifer. Her parents changed to an unlisted/unpublished number. That number is currently an elderly man. Poor fella...

[Davey Do]

I have fond memories of my grandmother sitting in her bedside chair at the nursing home, responding to news of her grandchildrens' activities with her predictably standard comment, "Times change."

Yeah- my Grandmother said something similar to me, Lane Therrell:

The older I get, the more I understand the layers of profundity rolled up in those two words. Since the dawn of pagers, we've added robotics, AI, wearable digital devices, genomics/epigenetics, and more to the leading edge of healthcare. What's next?

Some years ago, I was watching a "Simpsons" episode when Grandpa humorously referred to the fear older people had to changed times. This gave me comfort in realizing this fear is somewhat universal.

I enjoy living like in ELO described:

"All I had to do was pick up the phone

I'm out in space, trying to talk to someone

Yeah, we're living in

In a modern world "

but I also fear modern technology. Probably because everything seems less personal now, so what does the future hold?

I feel blessed to have lived at this period in history. And I'm just as glad to be the age I am, knowing I passed the halfway mark long ago.

Thanks for your post, Lane Therrell- it was fun to play with and very thought-provolking!

[angel0309, ADN, RN]

I may be showing my age here, but I honestly have no idea what in the heck a pager is??

[Kitiger, RN]

I remember the first time I saw a vibrating pager. The Doc left it at the nurse's station, then went to a phone and called his pager. That pager started buzzing and vibrating across the desk ... while I peeled myself off the ceiling!

Davey, picture please?

[Davey Do]

I remember the first time I saw a vibrating pager. The Doc left it at the nurse's station, then went to a phone and called his pager. That pager started buzzing and vibrating across the desk ... while I peeled myself off the ceiling!

Davey, picture please?

Well, Kitiger, if you insist!

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[Davey Do]

I may be showing my age here, but I honestly have no idea what in the heck a pager is??

Bless your heart, angel. You submitted the post of my dreams.

Pagers were (are?) little black boxes about the size of a container of Tic Tacs that I wore on my belt or kept in my pocket that would beep or vibrate when someone paged me. The caller would enter a number where the call was to be returned and it showed up on a small green screen.

Texts could be sent on later pagers before I lost track of them, having used pagers from 1986 when I would be on call for OR until 1995 when I ended my tenure as a nursing supervisor for an HH agency.

Thank you, angel. Now I can die with a smile on my face, feeling like the Good Lord hasn't gypped me out of anything.

Good night.

[rn1965, ADN]

Yes, I had a pager, in 1997.

My most vivid memory was when I had it on vibrate only, in the middle of a NRP certification class. No sooner had I tubed the "baby" when my pager vibrated and I yanked the tube and the "baby" clear across the table.

I was already nervous in class, then that! But, the instructor laughed so hard, she had to cross her legs. She said, try not to do that in real life, through tears streaming down her face!

Good times.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Remember them? I still use one daily for rapid responses, codes, code grays, sepsis codes, stroke alerts, and whatever else they will think of.

[EllaBella1, BSN]

Same! I still carry one when I work rapid response for sepsis alerts. And on the floors we still page the on call hospitalist for needs on night shift.

I do remember carrying one when I was out with friends in high school though. My mom had developed a set of numbers that she would page me that meant different things such as where are you, and you had better get your a** home now. lol.

[Davey Do]

Yes, I had a pager, in 1997.

My most vivid memory was when I had it on vibrate only, in the middle of a NRP certification class. No sooner had I tubed the "baby" when my pager vibrated and I yanked the tube and the "baby" clear across the table.

She said, try not to do that in real life.

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[Davey Do]

Whaddaya mean remember? I still have one!

I still have one

Um....we still use pagers in my hospital.

Remember? Don't have to "remember" since they are still prolific at work!

Believe it or not, we got 'em where I work right now.

Remember them? I still use one daily

Same! I still carry one

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[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Man's Best Hospital was still using pagers for their critical care transport team when my husband retired a few years ago. We had a bowl near the front door where we'd drop our keys and phones when we came home, and where he'd drop his pager if he was on call. He had the irritating habit of leaving the pager turned on, even when he wasn't on call. And he'd leave the pager in the bowl even when he WAS on call, then he'd disappear into his man cave and ignore the pages. I finally got him to leave it on vibrate so the incessant beeping didn't drive me absolutely insane. But one day, he was on call and the pager vibrated so much that it walked the bowl right off the table and smashed it on our tile floor. DH heard the crash, and, leaving the smashed bowl right where it was, got a stainless steel mixing bowl out of the cupboard and placed his pager and keys inside. Do you have ANY idea how much noise a vibrating pager makes inside a stainless steel bowl? GRRRRRRRRR!