Remember Pager Texting?

Picture a younger me: baggy jeans, flannel shirt, chain wallet, and a pager with chain hanging from my pocket. Middle school fashion wasn't the greatest, but my pager was on point. It was a semi-clear case with a green tint to it, gold chain hanging from it to attach to my belt loop, and I even went so far as peeling and polishing the AA battery that went inside of it.

You weren't cool unless you had a pager. I pitched it to my parents that I needed on so they could reach me any time they wanted, but I really just wanted to be one of the cool kids at school and hide it when the teachers walked around. Before texting, it was the way to communicate. However, it was just numbers. How could you communicate with just numbers?

Turn it upside down, of course! A series of numbers, just like on your calculator, turned upside down on the LCD display could make words. You could also put in a series of numbers as a "code" for various phrases. These are some I remember.

6000*843 - Goodbye

07734 - Hello (Of course this was upside down)

1*177155*400 - I Miss You (This was a far stretch. Also, I never got this one)

911 - Usually my parents after I would not call them back from the previous pages

823 - Thinking of you

143 - I love you (version 1)

831 - I love you (8 letters, 3 words, 1 meaning)

We had a heck of a code system before texting. Obviously, now we don't need them, but it's nice to think back on them.

P.S. - I still have my green pager and gold chain, just in case they make a comeback.