I’m old enough to remember when phones were plugged into the wall and did not come with amenities like voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, and caller ID. I’m also old enough to remember learning phone etiquette, which generally involves pleasantly identifying yourself when you first started speaking.

It seems as caller ID has become ubiquitous, all those phone manners that folks my age learned as children are no longer taught. Few people begin a call by identifying themselves and asking to speak to the person they are trying to reach. They just start talking, and assume the caller ID has announced their name. I admit, I’ve been known to occasionally demand identification from a teenager who fails to use proper etiquette when calling the house.

But there’s one aspect of having caller ID that befuddles and, quite frankly, annoys me. Recently I wanted to find out if a particular restaurant in town was open. I used my cell phone to look the restaurant up online. When I couldn’t immediately find the hours posted, I tapped my screen to call. But instead of hearing a message saying I’d reached the restaurant I heard what obviously was someone’s personal voice mail, so I hung up without leaving a message. Wrong number. Oh well, these things happen.

An hour or so later my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but answered it anyway. Someone on the other end said “I see you called my number.” Back in the stone-ages when the phone was plugged into the wall and you dialed a wrong number no one called you back demanding to know why you called their number. Because there was no caller ID, they probably didn’t even know you called at all. I will never understand why people today feel compelled to ring up perfect strangers who misdialed to find out why they called.