I remember the first time I was allowed to use the phone without supervision.

I was 7 years old and the year was 1963.

It was a big deal back then.

So was getting mail in your name and being allowed to write someone.

Your mom would give you a nickel to buy the first class stamp at the Post Office, then you licked the back side applying it carefully to the upper right corner, and dropped it in the mail box.

Yes, for those who use sanitary soap by the barrel, you actually had to lick stamps back in the Dark Ages.

As for landlines, I have no inkling of the last time I held a phone receiver in my hand.

It easily could have been three years ago.

By contrast, there are 3 year-olds out there who already have a year or so of using a smart phone under their belt.

What brings this up is the Tin Can.

It is a throwback to the days when pink princess phones and private lines were the unattainable dreams of tween girls who dreamed of yakking for hours while sprawling out on the couch mindlessly twisting the spiral cord tethered to a wall plug.

Tin Can was created by three Seattle dads in 2024 who weren’t thrilled about putting a smartphone in the hands of their pre-teen kids.

Today, they have a waiting list of parents eager to plunk down $100 for the phone that has no screen and no apps.

It uses Wi-Fi to connect to your computer Internet with free calls limited to other Tin Can users with the added ability to dial 9-1-1.

Parents, for a $9.99 monthly subscription, can buy a service that allows their kid to call specific numbers of friends and grandparents that they can control by adding or deleting them in a directory.

No worries about their kids getting spam calls or worse.

And no cute “horror” stories to share of your kid accessing an app and placing a $200 order for Barbie Doll clothes.

Parents that have given their kids Tin Cans as their first phone praise the simplicity and their ability to control who they can, borrowing a phrase from Ma Bell, “reach out and touch someone” with the someone being their kid.

Actually, Verizon or another cell service provider using such an advertising slogan in today’s era of anything goes on a smartphone would sound downright creepy.

The smartphone genie isn’t going back into the bottle. And the odds are sometime in the future they will become old school thanks to a new device we can’t even imagine.

Whether such “training phones” allow kids to work up to smartphones as they learn responsible phone use ends up following crank phones in the tech graveyard has yet to be seen.

That said, I doubt parents will embrace writing and sending letters today to serve as a training tool for responsible texting.

A survey for Common Sense Media in 2023 indicates young teens receive and send as many as 237 texts a day.

To match that amount of screen time to communicate in words using paper and pen would require even more time.

Now that the stamp that cost a nickel in 1963 is about to go up to 82 cents, it would cost $194.34 to send the same texts every day by mail.

It might require kids putting in more thought when they put words to paper, but who is kidding who.

Communication today is not quality. It’s about being able of “say “what you want now.

Reflection and filters, as witnessed by the world’s most famous texter/poster of our era, is for wimps.

To be honest, I’m not likely to ever buy an 82 cent first class stamp.

My relationship with the Postal Service has become almost 100 percent one way.

In the case of the institution Ben Franklin established, most people today almost exclusively receive as opposed to sending mail.

The last items I mailed requiring a postage stamp was a month ago to Uncle Sam and Cousin Gavin to get back money they took from me.

The stamps came from a book of 20 Forever Stamps I bought in 2024 when first class stamps were 73 cents.

Given the only thing I have mailed since I paid my last bill by check nine months ago were my income tax returns, I have enough stamps left to cover the next four tax seasons assuming I don’t misplace the stamps.

First-class stamps will probably cost a dollar apiece before I need to buy another.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com