Tag Tuesday - Ten Minutes Tag; and a story: COME IN DICK TRACY

Today's tag challenge was to create one in just 10 minutes.

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For details on how I made this, or to join in on the challenge, please go to 

Blog Challenge Garden.

Come In, Dick Tracy

(26th in the Tuesday Story Series)

Growing up, I enjoyed reading Dick Tracy in the comics section of the Sunday paper. Chester Gould, Dick Tracy's creator, started out modeling the strip and the stories on the 1930's Chicago crime scene. The bad guys always had outlandish names (Flattop Jones, Odds Zonn) and the good guys always won. And the most fascinating item in his crime fighting repertoire was the "two way wrist radio".

For a child in the 1950's it was fun to think of being able to talk to someone by simply wearing a "phone". As the strip progressed, the wrist radio became a "2-way wrist TV". Wow, that was even better! If Flash Gordon (a 1950's TV show) could travel through space in a rocket with smoke exhaust coming out of the back, anything could happen!

Then in the 1980's came cell phones. Actually, the first commonly used phones were bag phones in a car - complete with a cord on the receiver. They couldn't be carried out of the car and you were limited in where you could call. Then of course, the technology started zooming and now we can do everything on a phone that we can do on a computer. And thirty years ago, (which isn't that long, people) it was all just a dream.

It's hilarious now to watch a movie from the 80's or 90's, or even after the year 2000 and see the differences in the phones. You can almost date a movie by the equipment the stars pull out of their vest pocket or purse. Some of them look so large and heavy, it's amazing they didn't rip out the guy's pocket!

In the 1950's, people usually had a black telephone which was installed in the central part of the house. There was even furniture which was made to hold the phone and also allow you to sit, so you could have a long conversation in comfort.

In high school, the cool girls were ones who had a phone installed in their bedrooms. Princess phones were considered the "in thing" to have. My parents thought that was ridiculous and so I was not a "cool girl".

I was thinking about this today when I "traded up " my cell phone.  Back when I used to own an antiques business, my cell phone went everywhere I did. Now because of my illness, I hardly use my cell phone and when I took it in, my friends at the Verizon store started laughing when they saw it. And it was only 4 or 5 years old! My husband has a Droid for his business and I have to admit it's fun to use the GPS but for me to have something that expensive would be ridiculous (thank you, Mom & Dad) so I was happy with a basic phone with large enough keys for me to see. I splurged on a red cover for it though.

Dick Tracy would be proud!