How times do change! And not always for the better, I think I can say without encountering too much argument.

It wasn’t that long ago that folks headed for the market to do their grocery shopping would carry a list prepared in advance. In those days, a parent needing to reach a child in a hurry would call the school and leave a message. If it were the offspring in class who needed to contact a parent, he’d head down to the office and ask to use the phone.

Doctors on call could go to a movie, leaving word with the usher, who’d see that a brief notice paging him would appear on the screen in case of emergency. Drivers needing to reach someone right away would keep an eye out for a booth with a bell sign on top, stop and make a phone call.

It was all so simple. And efficient. But oh, so 20th century, and here we are in the 21st.

So now we encounter grocery shoppers patrolling the aisles, pushing the cart with one hand while in the other holding not a list, but a cell phone. I see them all the time, calling home and following verbal instructions on what to buy.

School kids carry their own phones, always ready to make or take a call regardless of class disruption or rules banning their use during class. After all, dire emergencies such as forgotten homework, lunches or dental appointments certainly can’t wait, can they?

Why should drivers stop and use a pay phone when they can make the call with one hand and steer with the other? Maybe they should just because driving requires full-time concentration. Remember back in your youth when someone would try to nonchalantly one-hand a baseball and muff the catch? He could expect a quick retort of, “Two hands for beginners!”

Don’t get me wrong. Cell phones do have their place, even if I haven’t felt the need for one. Emergencies do happen, but for goodness’ sake don’t treat the things as toys. If adults take them seriously, just maybe the youngsters will too.

Then we won’t have a fan sitting in Section 119 at the ball park calling someone in Section 114 just to say, “Look over here at Section 119, Row 12 — I’m waving at you!”

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Coming up Saturday at the Towe Auto Museum is a chance to buy a unique graduation gift for that favorite grandchild at the seventh annual Collectibles Auction. Some of the offerings are so inviting that Grandma and Grandpa might actually prefer to buy one for themselves.

Say something on the order of that 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang, introduced to the public at that year’s New York World’s Fair. Museum director Kristen Hartley says “a fortunate buyer will be able to drive away with a piece of history that looks as good as the day it came out of the dealer’s showroom.”

Among the other hundred classic and collectible cars up for bid will be a 1939 Ford pickup, a 1954 DeSoto Firedome sedan, a 1986 Mercury Cougar Tiffany, a 1981 DeLorean sports car with only 7,000 miles on the odometer and a 1976 Lincoln Continental four-door convertible.

That’s this coming Saturday, June 14, with a registration at 8 a.m. and bidding beginning at 10 o’clock. There’ll be a preview party from 5:30 to 8:30 Friday night at the 2200 Front St. museum. More details? Call (916) 442-6802.

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Maybe it’s that we grew up in an age of trust, but seniors do seem to be fair game for all sorts of scams that come along, among them those perpetrated by unsolicited itinerant home improvement purveyors.

In a recent incident I heard about, two men approached an East Sacramento housewife, convinced her they were roof repairmen who had noticed a dangerous condition and persuaded her to let them go through the house and into the back yard to make an inspection. Once there, they got on the cell phone, speaking in an unknown foreign tongue, continued their supposed “inspection” and then left.

It was only after they had gone that she realized the house had been ransacked and cash, credit cards and jewelry taken. By whom? The confederate out front someplace to whom they’d been talking on that cell phone, telling him when to strike.

As far as I’m concerned, the best advice is to automatically say no to any stranger. If something needs repairing, you’ll be as aware of it as any passerby, and if you want to assure your own and your home’s safety, find a licensed local operator who advertises in the newspaper or the Yellow Pages. And, before hiring, ask for references.

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Once again in recent weeks we were treated to a headline about an inmate’s taking his own life in the Sacramento County Jail, and by now I’m sure the hand-wringing do-gooders are weeping and wailing and gnashing teeth while the suit-filers are cozying up to the bereaved families with an eye to taking everyone from Sheriff Louie Blanas down to court in pursuit of big bucks.

But it strikes me that any person really intent on killing himself is going to somehow find the means, and to avert inmate suicides in a manner that some people want would require a separate, full-time guard for each person incarcerated.

Let’s see, three eight-hour shifts a day per inmate would require three times the number of guards as there are prisoners, and if that wouldn’t create gridlock in the cellblock, I don’t know what would.

Do the best you can, I say, and if that’s not good enough, well, don’t worry about it. You tried.