Have you ever left your home and once you’ve driven at least a mile, you realize you’re naked? Oh, sure, you’ve got your clothes on – but that feeling of something missing just won’t go away.

It was just a trip to the grocery store. Can you go without it? How do you get rid of the disconnected feeling? I’ve felt that way a few times. My cell or mobile phone was left all alone on my kitchen counter, and I was out without it – naked.

Can you believe people still text while driving? Leave home without the mobile phone, and the texting-while-driving problem is solved.

What about all those important Facebook messages and updates? E-mail? How do you get the picture of your grandson and his baseball team standing with the latest championship trophy? (That is an important message.)

I actually had an interesting conversation at dinner because I didn’t sit there staring down at my iPhone. Real conversations are so rare these days. It seems we all would much rather comment on some cat or dog video someone sent someone who sent it along to everyone else.

Remember when “chain letters” were frowned upon? What are those messages you get that say you’ll get rich if you pass this along to every friend you have, but if you break the chain you’ll be poor? I don’t pass that stuff along. I’m already poor. I can live with that. Was it Groucho Marx who said, “I started with nothing and I still have most of that?” I don’t know for sure, but it’s a line he would use.

What if I’m in an accident and don’t have my phone? At least I’ll have clean underwear on. Still doing as my mother told me.

So here I was, naked of phone, and wanted to find a place where I was meeting some friends. I hadn’t been there before, so instead of using Yelp or Google, I had to do something the old-fashioned way. I had to stop and ask directions.

Now, guys don’t like to stop and ask such questions, but one thing the mobile devices have taught us is to ask just about any question we may. Old habits are hard to break, but the various mobile devices are doing it every day. Many long-known male instincts are being modified and changed right before our eyes, thanks to cell phones and iPads.

I was really naked on the short trip to town. I had also left my GPS at home. No phone, iPad or GPS. I would have to stop at a place and ask where to go.

So I tried it. I don’t speak Spanish, but someone else in the convenience store did and was able to provide translation services. Now I think I should learn Spanish. Talking slowly and loudly does not get my point across. Some of my hand gestures might get my face slapped.

Turns out that people still want to help poor, lost, phone-naked souls. I got to my destination in Valencia without much of a problem and was on time. Yes, I can travel someplace without a cell phone.

I have a little dinosaur sitting on my desk. It was a gift from someone who wanted to remind me of my age. That is what I felt like when I left my phone at home.

Dinosaur old.

Technologically challenged.

But remember, for those of you getting older, to get to be old and wise, one must first be young and dumb.

I thought I had met all of my “young and dumb” qualifications … until I left my phone at home and ventured into public naked. Phone naked.

I don’t recommend doing it.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].