flâneur

My Dad got an iPhone lol - by Marco Cornacchia

marcocornacchia.substack.com · 2,399 words · saved by 1 readers

I moved to SF in July 2020. One of the first people I met here told me their Dad used to work at Apple in the 80s. I responded with, “My Dad still uses a flip phone.” It was the only thing I could think to say back to her at the time. The idea that someone’s Dad had worked at Apple in the 80s broke my small-town Upstate NY brain. My “Welcome to SF” moment. My Dad, who was about to retire from working as a USPS mail carrier after 42 years, always made it a point that he was extremely proud of having a phone that was simply that: A phone. “Nobody bothers me on this.” I honestly felt that. When it was finally safe to travel again, I told him in person about the 80s Apple Dad interaction I had when I first got to SF. It became part of my last-ditch effort from a lifetime of attempts to make my now 67-year-old father start to embrace technology. “Her Dad worked at Apple. I can’t even get you to text.” Even if he wanted to T9 me a text, he couldn’t. He had a spam text get through to his phon

I moved to SF in July 2020. One of the first people I met here told me their Dad used to work at Apple in the 80s. I responded with, “My Dad still uses a flip phone.” It was the only thing I could think to say back to her at the time. The idea that someone’s Dad had worked at Apple in the 80s broke my small-town Upstate NY brain. My “Welcome to SF” moment. My Dad, who was about to retire from working as a USPS mail carrier after 42 years, always made it a point that he was extremely proud of having a phone that was simply that: A phone. “Nobody bothers me on this.” I honestly felt that.…

related reading