Not me, but my Dad.
When I think of the 1980s, I usually think of the usual stuff, like Knight Rider, The A Team, my Spectrum, the usual stuff, but it also brings back fond memories of my Dads car phone.

You see, back in those days, (around 1987-8 if I remember correctly) my Dad would often get a new car from work, and it would usually be fitted with what was back then, really cool stuff. I still remember the first time he had central locking! But none of it compares to his car phone.

Now you see, this thing was HUGE! It actually had to be fitted and installed into the car, there was a massive handset next to the handbrake, in a holder, and a massive box full of gubbins that was installed into the boot, I suppose the best way to describe that was that it looked a lot like a CD Changer.

The phone was difficult to use, and cost the earth to make phone calls on, but as I remember the sound quality was actually quite good, I remember chatting to many people using it, when I was in the car with my dad (I was too young to drive, you see, being only 8) and they were all really amused by the novelty of talking on the phone, to somebody in a car.

One thing this phone did have, though was hands free, and at that time, very few (if any) people had actually heard of this. As I am sure you can guess, this allowed my dad to talk to his customers while driving, and because he was in sales, this really helped him keep in touch, and to sell fork-lifts to people.

Anyway, now onto the good part. He was chatting with one of his customers on the phone, using his hands free, and then he had to write down an appointment time, and he could not do this while driving, so he pulled into what was at that time a very busy car park, and it was full of people, and if memory serves, there was a large group of people getting off a coach, right next to where he was parked.

He was talking away, when he noticed that he was getting some very strange looks from some of the coach passengers, but he just ignored this, and tried to get on with his work, that was until he heard a voice say: “Hey, that weird guy in that car is talking to himself!” He and the customer just laughed at this.

I still remember that throughout the years, he would get a new car, and a team of engineers would have to dismantle this phone, and re-assemble it in his new car, the whole process would take a day or so, but we would all be excitedly waiting at home, to see his next new car, and what new features it contained.

When he finally got rid of this phone, it felt like an era had ended, and from then on, he had a “normal” handset, that he could use in the house. I will never forget that car phone.
( Squiggy Alloria makes theme parks., Thu 30 Jul 2009, 17:41, 1 reply)

punnage?
When he finally got rid of this phone, it felt like an ear had ended

Yes, quite.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Thu 30 Jul 2009, 18:08, closed)