I have never owned a cellphone..curious, what year did they become a necessity?

[Downtown Hound]

64. I didn't start really using one until 2013

I had had a few prior to that, but I always ended up not using them much and viewed them as more of a nuisance than anything. Then one day, my car broke down. I was about 10 miles away from home. No problem, I thought. I'll just find the nearest payphone and call AAA. Oh silly me, showing my age. I ended up walking 10 miles back to my house. It took hours, and me feet were killing me by the time I got home. There was not a single working pay phone at any of the two dozen or so markets and strip malls I passed along the way.

I realized then that cell phones were a requirement for modern day life. There are no alternatives left for emergencies like that. I probably could have asked one of the businesses to let me use their phone, but my thinking at the time was that there was bound to be a pay hone right up the road any minute now. I kept doing that until I was so close to home that I was like, "Screw it. I'm just going home. I'll call from there."

I've had a working cell phone ever since.