What we did before computers

I remember a time less hectic maybe, but it required me to sit down and write letters, stuff them in envelopes and wait up to two weeks to get an answer. Mail call was a favorite time of day with emotions ranging from elation if your name was called and deep sadness if you did not get anything. Long distant calls were made collect because normally as a young person you did not have any money to put in the coin slots. If you wanted something and you could not afford it you had to put it on layaway and make payments until you paid for it. Some how I always made that $78 a month pay stretch to the end. Of course the Air force saw to it I had a mess hall to eat at, a dorm to sleep in and if needed a dentist or doctor to take care of me. If I was overseas for longer than 180 days I got $6 a month overseas pay, but with beer at 10 cents a bottle and cigarettes 9 cents a pack life was easier. I just noticed something, the old typewriters used to have a cent key on them, computer keyboards don't. I am sure I had other hard decisions to make about banking and I remeber the very first credit card I got was a Chevron Gas credit card. I some how think I could go on forever about the hardships of not having a computer but some how that seems strange. Especially now that I have at least two at some times and my cell phone doesn't even count as one.