2040 no more

June 2012- My mom called to tell me they've disconnected their home phone and for now she and my dad are going to be using only their cell phones.  My jaw hit the floor when she told me this.  My parents have had the same phone number 824-2040 for 36 years- longer than I've been alive!  They've never had an answering machine but they've always had the same number.  They one time they moved I was eighteen months old and that was just from the rent house to the home they built and they didn't have to change numbers.  They've been there ever since.  The area code did change once and that took some adjusting but nothing like this.  I'm still having trouble processing it.

I remember growing up when everyone in town had the same prefix of 824 so if you needed to give someone your phone number you just said the last four digits.  We were 'twenty forty'.  So easy to remember, right?  I don't even know my mom's cell phone number.  It is programmed into my phone so if I ever had to dial it without using her name from my contact list it would be impossible.  Or if her number were to come up on my phone without her name I wouldn't even know it was her.  That is how much modern technology has made me oblivious to phone numbers.  But 2040 is forever engrained in my memory.  I wish the cell phone provider could have given her that number.  But wait, I don't even really need her number because now I can just "dial" her e-mail address and talk via FaceTime on her iPhone.  This will take some getting used to.