Last week I wrote about my disgust with the National Transportation Safety Board for recommending that the states ban any use of cellphones by people while they are driving.

I expected plenty of chastising messages from people using phrases like “body count.” Instead I got a surprising number of supportive comments.

The most gratifying comments, though, were from people who confided that, like me, they didn’t own cellphones.

One of the most surprising messages came from a man who said that he had actually designed cellphones for a well-known corporation, back when cellphones were still those big clunky things about the size of a small carton of milk. He was obviously on the cutting edge technologically, but he never caved in to the craze. He didn’t have a cellphone, he said. He felt no need to be constantly connected.

Another man who described himself as a professional and father of two with an active wife proudly told me that he didn’t have a cellphone either.

Both messages, though, contained comments that could be taken as a slight expression of lament. Each man commented that he thought he was the last person in America to not have a cellphone.

To a certain segment of the population, it seems that has become something of a closet goal. Be the last person without a cellphone.

I think it’s a worthwhile goal.

Having a cellphone isn’t really a bad thing. Many people in the past few years adopted cellphones and had their landlines removed. You got to keep the same number when you moved, and for some it was cheaper, though early on there were plenty of horror stories about people who got gigantic bills because they talked too long on their phones.

But I kept my landline, for a simple reason, really. I have had the same telephone number for years. Everyone I knew had that number.

Keeping that same number isn’t that important any more. Most of the people who knew that number are either dead or no longer speaking to me. But that old number is a familiar thing, so I keep it.

I must admit, over the years there have been a few times – three times, I think – when I really could have used a cellphone, but why buy a cellphone when you are only going to need it once every two years or so?

In a way, it’s almost getting too late for people who don’t have cellphones to get into the act. In the old days, which were only five years ago or so, all you had to know to use a cellphone was when to push the green button and when to push the red one.

Today, if you buy a cellphone, it likely comes with the ability to play games, send text messages, to tweet, to look at the Internet.

You can even send text messages by speaking into some phones, eliminating the need to type.

All that technology might be a little overwhelming for someone who has never owned a cellphone.