Truth be told, though, that lesson in the dangers of using a cell phone while driving didn’t have much lasting impact on me, either. Once I had left behind the traffic noises and honking horns of the rush-hour freeways and settled in for my drive to Vegas, I was on the phone. My first call was to a number etched in my memory: the one for the Pacific Bell switching center that supported all the switches in the west San Fernando Valley area.