Dinner without phones

My wife and I went out to dinner the other night.  We left our cell phones at home.  Imagine that.  I think we both just wanted a nice quiet evening alone together with no distractions. 

I came home from work that afternoon, went through the mail, paid the bills and waited for my son to come home from his first job.  That kid is amazing.  Most of the summer he has been sitting in front of the xbox, either blowing up aliens, zombies or the enemy of the day, and it has been a chore sometimes to get him to utter more than one syllable about how his day went.  These days, a little more than a week into his first real job, he comes home and has so much to share. 

That afternoon he was talking about how much work they did.  He said he finally feels like one of the guys because they started joking with him, and even playing harmless little practical  jokes.  He had plans for the evening, so he told me all about those.  Then he mentioned that he would be home early because he has to work in the morning.  Wow.  Is this my kid?  He seems so different. 

My wife came home shortly after my son left for his evening.  I told her we were alone.  Hmmm.  What do you want to do?  Let's go out to dinner.  Let's have someone wait on us.  And so we did.  A nice little sushi place around the corner (and down the street, past the medical offices across from the bank).  well, it's in the neighborhood. 

Quiet?  Right.  The place was crowded - happy hour.  And I could hardly hear her talk.  Funny, I could have used my cell phone just to talk to  her.  And we were the only ones.  The only ones with out cell phones.  The place was full.  We had to wait to be seated- longer than five minutes.  People were talking on their phones to people about work.  People were texting.  (I would have loved to take a picture of what I ordered but...I left my cell phone at home.) 

Later, on the drive home, my wife was worried that we missed some important message from one of the kids.  She mentioned that they have never known a world without cell phones.  Indeed, when they were younger they didn't much care.  But as they got older, they had phones. 

Amazing how our lives have become.  I long for the day without phones.  What a quiet world that will be. 

D.