Cellphones were around in 1996——I got my first one in 1994.
.
I had a bag phone in 92 or 93. But for life? landlines, and my lovely code a phone phone answering machine.
one would come home and the answering machine would be blinking.
It was like getting mail! So much fun!
(realize that from the time chickenoup could toddle, Grandmother used to sent her through the front hall to the vestibule to fetch the mail! Loved it, and all these years later, still do!)