National Telephone Day

A lot of old homes still have phone nooks, but most of them don't have phones anymore.

I remember as a kid, I had this old style phone my mom let me use for playing House, and I was always particular about where and how I set up the area.  I wanted a comfortable setting, a quiet place.  I would consider how I'd have the phone in my own home someday.

Alas, hardly anyone has a landline anymore.  You can barely find a payphone.  I used to have a desk phone for work, but now that we're working from home, it's an app on my cellphone.

Times have changed.

The day isn't just about nostalgia though, it's to encourage young inventors in STEM fields.

Alexander Graham Bell was 29 years old when he submitted his patent, and his father had developed "Visible Speech," a system used to teach speaking to the deaf.

But Bell wasn't the only one on this track - Elisha Gray filed his patent the same day, and in Italy, Antonio Meucci had been unable to file a patent due to his economic situation.