You can't argue with me about this. We're all kind of locked on our phones these days, and while that can drive you nuts, it's also an incredible benefit when it comes to communicating quickly with family, friends, and work colleagues. But what do people do to keep in touch before the telephone? I'm Patty Steele. Put your lips together and blow. That's next on the

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We're back with the backstory.

We're so used to being able to get through to anybody at any time by just grabbing our cell phones.

It's kind of hard to imagine what people did to get

what they needed before we had them. Yeah, there were landlines, but they couldn't go with you

anywhere. And what about when you were upstairs in the house and your parent or kid or sweetheart

was in the basement? You had to go all the way downstairs to get one stupid question answered.

It wasn't that long ago that folks had to rely on much less reliable tech when it came to

communication. By the year 2000, only 28% of us had a cell phone. That's just 25 years ago.

That popped up to 50% just two years later. Today, they are

ubiquitous. Ninety-eight percent of Americans have a cell phone. But before the late 1990s,

it was complicated. Sure, we had landlines starting in the late 1870s, but even by 1945, only around 45% of American homes had a phone.

And even if you had one, if you were going to meet somebody somewhere, you had to set up a

rendezvous spot and hope you found each other. Before phones, the greatest invention for

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