"Glad I Had a Cell Phone" Stories

STORY ONE: I travelled by train to from California to Omaha, Nebraska. The train was delayed by 2 hours, bringing it into the station just at closing time--8AM. Turns out that the train station in Omaha, Nebraska is only open from10:30pm to 8am! And they are serious! -- They turned us out in the cold and made us wait on the curb in a very empty section of town. Luckily, having a cell phone, we were able to arrange transportation and were picked up before the frostbite got too serious.

STORY TWO: It was the 4th of July, 1998, and several of us were at the Alameda County Fair. The whole place turned suddenly into a riot scene because of two gang members fighting over a Tweety bird at a game booth. Evidently, it was the last Tweety bird and some people consider that enough reason to whip out an automatic and start shooting randomly into a crowd. The effect of this was a stampede. For about two hours, guns and M-80s went off all over the fair crowds, people were pushed down and robbed. It was not a pretty sight and there was only one road to get out. Needless to say, traffic was fairly grid-locked. But, many of us were able to contact each other with our cell phones to be sure our friends were OK. Fortunately, none of my friends were injured.

STORY THREE: Same group of friends as above decide to go to Great America for the 4th in 1999. Nothing tragic happened this time. Thankfully. But, there was that time that we decided to split up for awhile and go in different directions because there were varying opinions on who wanted to do what. No problem...we'd keep in touch with our cell phones and all turned them on and exchanged numbers. It didn't dawn on us, until after we had separated, that all those with the cell phones had gone in the same group together. Duh.

STORY FOUR: I'm on the way to the San Francisco airport in a Bay Porter van, catching a flight to Washington, DC. I think to make one last call to verify my van pick-up from the DC airport. They tell me they have no reservation. It's Sunday, but I had been fore-sighted enough to get the home phone number of the women whose job it had been to make my van reservation. [NOTE: We are talking a van with a lift for a wheelchair here, so it's not something that just pulls up to the curb like a cab...these vans must be scheduled in advance.] I not only used my cell phone to call the van company, but to call the woman at home. She was at her son's baseball game. I gave her daughter my cell phone number; daughter paged mother; mother called me. My van was waiting for me in DC.

STORY FIVE: I called the Kaiser number for my doctor and went through all the menu options until I got the Advice Nurse one. I waited through horrible music until finally someone picked my call up and asked for my Kaiser number. Instead, I told her, "I just saw Dr. So-and-So, and I'm still in the exam room. I told the nurse that I could get myself back into my wheelchair, except, she forgot to lower the table. There's no button in here to push to call the nurse, so I'm using my cell phone. Could you please tell her to get in here and lower the table so I can get off of it safely?"

STORY SIX: Nine of us were trying to coordinate our activities to attend my niece's graduation ceremony at the Academy of Arts College. We were all adults...you'd think we could get our act together. Four cell phones in the group...one forgot to charge his (#1), one forgot to turn hers on (#2), one wasn't getting reception (#3), and one hadn't exchanged phone numbers (#4). However, just at the exact right moment, #2 remembered to turn on her cell phone while standing in front of #3's apartment, but had forgotten the exact address -- the phone rings, it's #1 who has just borrowed #4's phone and called to find out where #2 (and two other members of the party were). "What's the address?...Oh, then we're here!"

STORY SEVEN: A woman using a wheelchair entered a revolving door, but got stuck in the middle when the door began to turn. Trapped inside the glass cage, she used her cell phone to call for help.

If you have a "Glad I Had a Cell Phone" Story of 8 or less lines, feel free to send it and I'll consider posting it. PKWalker at aol.com

Pamela Walker