Monday Memories – Hello, Hello

When Cali was a little person she called the telephone a “hello, hello.”

When I was a little person . . .

• Our phone number was 655-4266 and my best friend’s number was only one digit different. I had dozens of phone numbers memorized. 
• We were on a party line with our neighbors so we had to pick up the receiver carefully when we used the phone in case someone was already talking. 
• We only had to use the last four digits of a local number to place a call. 
• We had a rotary dial phone and later a push button. 
• The kitchen phone had an extended 15-ish foot cord so that while we talked we could sit on a couch or go in a bedroom, shut the door, and talk in private (assuming no one was listening in on the party line). 
• Long distance phone calls were 30 cents a minute. We didn’t call long distance often. 
• The Jetson’s had futuristic, fantasy screens they talked into and saw and heard people talking back to them, but that only happened in cartoons to people that traveled in space ships with robot maids. 

Now that I’m a big person . . .

• I only have three phone numbers memorized. If I get thrown in jail I’ll be in big trouble when it comes time to place my one and only phone call if Calvin doesn’t answer.  Speed dial has stupefied me. 
• I have a phone with my own number as does Calvin and every single one of our family members. I can talk whenever I want without waiting for someone else to hang up. Phones today even interrupt and tell me when someone else is trying to call. 
• I touch a screen and the phone dials the number for me. 
• I can write messages, take pictures, play music, record videos, pull down maps, surf the internet, and read books on a phone. 
• There is no cord and I can answer a phone in the middle of the living room floor or the middle of a field. 
• There is one flat fee for all of my phone calls. I call long distance a lot. 
• The phone has a fantastic screen you talk into and see people talking as they talk back, but there is no robot maid in the background.  

Today I got my first iphone. You and everyone else in the family has had one for years and today I finally joined you.  Good bye sweaty ear and kinked neck, hello bedazzled phone cover and facetime.

(I couldn’t believe what I saw! Abe was in a beret and captain’s uniform, Afton had grown a foot or two and was walking all around the furniture, Ande’s baby belly had stretched another inch. Amazing.) 

Do you still remember your original phone number? Would you be in trouble if kidnappers nabbed you and you could only sneak away long enough for one call?