ON A recent day Friday night, I got off the MRT to meet my friend Sam. As I emerged, my vibrating cell phone had five messages. It shook like an energetic Chihuahua.

One was from my pal Martin who said he was at the gym. Another was from JR who was in his car. Then a text message from Mia who said she was bored, one from Carl who just left his office, and still another from Sam, who told me he was in an Irish bar a few streets away from the train station.

I walked to the bar, rang up Sam when I got to the block. He met me on the street. He had just gotten a call on his cell from Mika who wanted us to come to a party at her friend?s house. She promised it would be fun.

Sam texted her back for the address. I called JR to tell him. JR said he would pick us up. Mika zapped Sam for the address. I quickly called Carl to tell him to meet us on the southwest corner of the bar?s street, left a message for Martin to tell him to call me if he wanted to go and texted Mia and gave her the address.

Carl came, Mia called, Martin texted ?Too tired,?JR picked us up and we flew.

Easy living

How the hell did people make plans before cell phones? Did they just cleanly arrange their meetings and parties weeks in advance and stick to schedules?

Now everything is so easy to find, so easy to get to, so easy to locate, and I have more friends and acquaintances than ever ? Yahoo! Messenger chatmates, Facebook friends, MySpace chums, blogger buddies and Last.fm pals.

I keep making plans with all of them. Usually we meet for well-scheduled dinners, talk and take pictures with our phones. Then we drive home and upload the photos on Facebook the next day, followed by group comments with lots of inside jokes.

There is no way we could make plans without all our devices. Here are three examples:

Last week I was supposed to meet Sam at a restaurant. Sam arrived before me, only to discover that the restaurant was closed. It was a rainy night so he texted me: ?Come to the Italian joint across the street.? Simple!

Yesterday I was late for a meeting (there was a vehicular accident or bomb threat or a transit strike or something), but I just called ahead to make sure they knew I was on my way. No prob!

Last month, when I was hurrying to meet Mark at a mall bakery, I couldn?t remember what floor it was on. I called the mall information desk while I walked in the general direction and met him without delay. Thank you, satellite technology!

Mellow

Unavoidable snags like these certainly happened before 1998 (the last year of BC: Before Cell phones), but I have no recollection of how I dealt with them.

Maybe people were more patient and mellow:

?Hi Malang! It?s Bencab! I?m calling from a pay phone with my friend Imelda! We?ll just wait here patiently in the stormy rain on the corner of Roxas Boulevard for two hours until you get here. No big deal!?

Or maybe the active adults of long ago were actually more punctual and efficient, hustling and bustling in their spats and pomaded hair and shoulder pads.

Instead of checking their iPhones all the time like dithering amnesiacs, people memorized numbers and addresses, and if they were lost, they simply walked into those old diners, had leisurely cups of joe for a peso, and asked the sassy counter clerk for directions.

They banged on radiators, used dumbwaiters, whistled for cabs, told their woes to bartenders, got their shoes shined, screamed their neighbors? names on the street below their window.

We think we are so innovative now, but maybe back in BC, people actually interacted more with the physical world and with one another.