I had a nice conversation this week with my grandson, Cameron. He was trying to explain to me how easy it is to transfer data from one cellphone to a new one.

He said I should have a safety pin or paper clip to poke into a small hole in my old cellphone. To tell the truth I had no idea where to poke it or how to make the transfer.

I had to apologize for my lack of technical know-how.

“Unlike your generation, people my age weren’t born with two thumbs ready to dance over a keyboard,” I told my grandson.

He claims he too had to play catch-up with technology because he didn’t have a cellphone until fifth grade. Ohhhh, poor baby.

Hey, when I was in fifth grade we didn’t have cellphones. We had a home telephone line that was a party line.

For those of you who came along later, don’t be tempted to think a “party line” was social fun. It just meant two or more households shared one telephone line. When we picked up the phone to make a call, we had to make sure no one else was on the line.

Our parents had to impress upon us proper behavior when someone else was on the line. We were told not to listen in, but to quietly hang up and try again later.

I bet most people don’t remember those days.

At the time, we lived a block away from the telephone company. I used to stand outside the glass-plated front watching banks of phone operators say “Number please.”

I thought it might be nifty to be a phone operator some day, never suspecting operators would go the way of the dinosaurs.

When I finally did get a cellphone, I saw it as a potential lifesaver I should have had long ago.

Before we had cellphones or GPS units readily available, I often found myself driving at night in unfamiliar territory while on my way to interview strangers. After I found the right house, that is.

There was one memorable time when I thought I was following directions, driving at night along a dark, dirt road.

It had to be my guardian angel that suddenly stopped me in my tracks inches away from an abandoned coal pit that would have buried me and my car.

When I looked down and saw the deep stripping pit, I was shaking so much I had a hard time backing away.

For me, a cellphone and GPS are godsends. Don’t know how I ever got along without them.

I also rank home computers as another wonder to enhance life.

For the first decade of my newspaper career we pounded out our stories on big old manual typewriters.

I was thrilled when my husband bought me my first Mac, a turquoise Apple computer that made my job so much easier.

Since then, over the years I’ve had a lot of Macs, with each one having new and better technology.

One technological advance I appreciated was the addition of Siri to my Apple computer and cellphone. I like being able to talk to her to ask for information.

While I’m driving, I like that I can ask her to call a friend and tell her I’m running a bit late. I know I don’t use half of what’s available.

When I’m stuck, I call my grandsons or my son-in-law Greg. They are usually always able to solve my technical problems.

As I keep telling myself, one doesn’t have to know everything. You just have to know whom to ask.

Best yet, they never tell me I should be able to do it myself. They simply accept that I’m not a techie.

While I may be clueless about most new technology, I am appreciative of all the technical advances that have come along ever since I pounded out stories on a big manual typewriter.

What I most regret is the steep learning curve I have whenever I get something new. When my daughter Andrea generously gave me her iPhone 8 plus after she upgraded, l thought transferring data from my old phone to the new one would be easy. I did it twice before with the help of one of the Apple store geniuses. (Isn’t it nice to have job where you’re called a genius?)

When I couldn’t get my data to transfer this week I first went to my cellphone carrier for help. Unfortunately I walked out of there without the data transfer.

When I called Apple I got a helpful technician who recommended I switch to my husband’s Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, said husband couldn’t remember his password.

No problem, the Apple guy said. Turn on your smart TV, use the microphone function and ask it to tell you the Wi-Fi password.

I was amazed when it worked. Who ever thought my TV would know the password?

Heck, who ever thought we would have half of the technical advances we are now enjoying?

In days of old, Superman was said to go “faster than the speed of light.”

Now, so do technological advances.

What technology are you now enjoying that didn’t exist a few years ago?

OK, now guess what present technology will go the way of manual typewriters.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.