Retro: Can you imagine a world without a mobile phone?

And, did you know there is now a medical condition called 'Phone OCD' or 'Nomophobia'?

Similar to those who can't get through a day without an alcoholic drink there are people who are obsessed with phoning someone, usually at night and often when you are trying to watch your favourite television programme!

But, during the 1950s and 1960s communication was very basic at the best of times. In fact it depended more or less solely on the written word. People wrote letters. Imagine!!

If there was a family emergency, it could take ages before the news reached you with the only speedy way of communication being the telegram boy on a bicycle who came from your local post office.

This was the way my mother learnt of the deaths of her parents in the Irish Republic but with no chance of attending the funerals because of the time factors or expense involved.

For those with televisions the news was limited and not everyone bought a daily newspaper.

Pathe News at the cinema gave you a window on what was happening in the world, although by the end of the 1950s it wasn’t quite as popular due to television and news being reported as it happened.

There were few homes with an actual landline telephone, and we relied on the red phone box at the end of the road.

Looking back, there were aspects of it that were quite funny.

The boxes could be cold and smelly, often having been used as a toilet, but always with phone directories intact although there could be broken windows! Unusual in a time of little vandalism.

Buttons A and B are frequently thought of with nostalgia!

You often joined a queue of people waiting to use the phone, and if the person inside was a long time someone would bang on the door shouting ‘How much longer are you going to be?’ With the rest of the queue nodding in agreement.

Sometimes you got to the phone box to find no one inside but one person waiting outside. ’Waiting for a call to come through’ they would say.

And like a lemon you would meekly nod and wait!

Phone boxes could be used for sheltering from the rain or for doing a spot of courting and were often the target of teenage boys who would ring the operator, ask if they were on the line and then shout, ‘You’d better watch out then, there’s a train coming!’

When you did acquire a phone in your home there could be a lot of fun if it was a party line, and you listened in to someone else’s conversation!

The only trouble about being affluent enough to own your own telephone was that it could be thought of as communal property with neighbours coming to use it in an emergency!

One thing is for sure. You would never have even dreamt of the idea of having mobile phones.

That would have been like something in a science fiction film. And when they did become available, they were like house bricks.

There was no chance of carrying one in your pocket! The first mobile phone in popular use was the Motorola handheld cellular phone which appeared in 1973.

Batteries were carried around in a box for mobile charging!