Good old pagers. I absolutely don't miss mine, but they were a welcome relief to get the odd message when you were working in dangerous or "clean" environments where phones (or any other electronic or transmitting device) were prohibited.
I think my last one fell out of my belt and into a toilet mid-piss, so that was that.
I just had a pager to try and fit in there was zero practical use for it.
in my experience, what was 1000% more likely was you gave each of your contacts a code like 111111111 meant call home and 2222222 would be your pal jason, if they added 911 it did mean urgent.
This is also what the few other nerds i knew who had pagers did.
Half the time they would leave the # where they were at because they might not be home.
So if you got 2 pages in a row
7777777911
4155551212
that would mean contact John at the given number and hurry it's an emergency. There were payphones at school and the mall so it was easy to get in touch.
Anyone remember those jungle paging shacks all over the place? Decked out in white/black zebra stripes
The local one had a jungle paging hummer H1 in full zebra stripes they would park out front... wonder if it's sitting somewhere with that same goofy paint job
I remember this from highschool. I always thought it was stupid; a pager (2 when on call) was something my dad used for work & emergencies. It was hardly what I'd have ever called cool.