MOULTRIE, Ga. — Over the past few weeks as I have watched late night movies, it hit me that I can judge the age of the movie by the phones they are using. And yes I could do this by the cars they drive as well and the background music. But it’s the phones that strike me first as time markers.

One movie had rotary dial phones. I had forgotten how long it actually took to dial a number on one of those compared to what we do today. So now what do I do with all that time I saved?

I was away in college before my family got a phone. As a teenager, I had to go up the road to my neighbor’s house to call my girlfriend. It was one of those old wall-hanging phones with a hand crank. You had to get the operator to dial the number you wanted. And no, her name was not Sarah. The downside was that my girlfriend couldn’t call me back.

My dad had tried a long time to get a phone line run down to our house. All he got was runaround from the phone company.

Then one day an Atlanta big shot bought a farm near us and put up a weekend cabin. He became friends with my dad, and one day he got my dad to ride with him to the phone company.

Apparently a tailored suit had much more impact on the phone company people than a pair of Red Camel overalls. We got a phone. It was a party line. I came home from college to a new era in our rural communications.

So the other night I saw an old John Candy movie. He had a remote phone with an antenna. It was about the size of a brick and looked about as heavy.  It looked like a smaller version of an army walkie talkie.

 The progress continues with Walker Texas Ranger. His girlfriend, Miss Cahill, had a flip phone. Eventually we get to the present, and we have phones with internet, apps of all descriptions, alarms, maps, global positioning devices, cameras, video capabilities. You can pay bills with your phone, Facebook with your phone, crank your car, lock your doors, turn on lights, etc. You can email and text. And yes, if you really want to, you can talk on it as well although conversation may be close to a lost art. I once wrote a column on my phone. The fish weren’t biting that day.

More and more people are going away from land lines. Many people don’t even have house phones.  I’m assuming you can still buy a landline phone, but I’m not sure.

There’s a book titled “The Last Linotype” which describes the change from hot type newspaper printing through offset printing and then word processing and computer pagination. I’m wondering if someone might write a book “The Last Land Line.”

While I have poked fun of people who constantly are texting on their phones, I admit that I feel naked if I walk out of the house without my cell phone. Now I don’t constantly text on it, but it has become a part of me … so useful. For instance, I take it jogging with me, and I can call my wife and tell her where to come pick me up when I run out of spit and vinegar. What a concept!

The other day I was having trouble fitting a new belt on my lawn mower. I Googled the issue and got a diagram of the belt configuration. Of course I got blood on my phone from by skinned knuckles, but it washed right off the life-time guaranteed phone case. I hope Siri was not offended with my comments.

Today I heard a new expression, “phone addiction.” I think it’s accurate. I know someone who lost his phone, and it appeared that he was experiencing withdrawal. Can support groups be far away?

(Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)