Children, sit down and make yourselves comfortable. I’m going to tell you a tale of long-ago days of yore when folks wanted to check e-mail, add an item to their calendar or open a spreadsheet — all without a cellphone. In fact, in those past eons, cellphones did one thing — they made phone calls.

So, how did they do the other stuff, you ask? I’ll tell you: they had something called Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs. These were handheld devices, and many of them even looked like today’s cellphones or smartphones. But they didn’t make calls or send text messages.

They did the other cool stuff, though, and did it well. There were many makers of them: two of the biggest were HP and Palm. Palm was the first to really make PDAs popular. And you know what, kids? Palm still makes PDAs, if you can believe it. You can even buy them today! What a concept.

If I’ve stoked your appetite for a PDA, check out this Palm TX handheld. It can do all kinds of non-calling cool stuff: You can check e-mail and surf the Internet. You can listen to your MP3s on it, and even read eBooks. It has wi-fi, meaning you can surf the Web anywhere there’s a wi-fi connection, and built-in Bluetooth for remote connectivity. You can also read and edit your Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents, something that many smartphones still can’t do.

Maybe the best part is it’s not all that expensive, and there’s no monthly bill to pay. Buy it once and stop paying for it right away. I know that’s a strange concept, but with a PDA, it’s the reality.

So if you want one of these gadgets from the past, you’d better get one now, kids; they’re an endangered species, and may not hold out much longer. Before you know it, you’ll only be able to find their fossilized bones.