But this story is not as humorous as it is unbelievable. My, oh my, times have surely changed. I'm only 22 years old, and I feel like an old lady. I know people begin to say that when they enter their twenties and compare themselves to youngsters, but seriously - I feel like an old lady. I don't understand why children need cell phones. Where do they go alone? Even if they're not with their parents, surely they're not out wandering the town without an adult. I didn't have a phone until I had a driver's license. And even then, I couldn't text for another year. (And maybe I'm just jealous of a fourth grader.)
A nine year old kid was studying the few pre-paid cell phones that we carry. His mother left him there to take his little sister to the bathroom. With a pencil box full of change in one hand and his purchase in the other, he approached the front and slid the Net 10 cell phone on the counter. He immediately started to count his change.
After he paid, he lingered at the checkout because his mom was taking a while. So I began to ask him questions about what school he went to and what grade he was in. I'm sure I scared him a little bit but I had no idea what else to talk to him about. As a child, I watched Matlock and played Nintendo. I had an inkling, he knew nothing about either subject.
Anyway -
I said "Is this your first phone?"
"No. It's my third."
My jaw dropped. "Third?! How old are you?"
"Nine."
"And how old were you when you got your first phone?"
"Four. I just keep dropping them in the toilet."
"Are you kidding me?... Guess how old I was when I got my first phone."
"Ten?" he guessed after much consideration.
"Sixteen."
"Whoa," he whispered. Somehow he was more shocked that I didn't have a phone until my sixteenth birthday than I was that he had one at age four, the year I got an Easy Bake Oven for christmas.
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