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LEARN HOW TO MAKE OUR TYPE LARGER

	Just a thought
	Betty Lammers

Call me, anytime
Published September/October 2001

Woman on phone

When Alexander Graham Bell asked, "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you", he couldn't have foreseen the bedlam he unleashed upon the public.

I remember when we dialed HI (Hillcrest) 2 or VA (Valley) 6 and then the 4-digit number so we wouldn't have to memorize too many numbers. We had a more compassionate phone company then. In my newspaper today, I read that beginning in December we would be required to dial 10 numbers, even for a next-door neighbor.

Most teenagers today have their own lines. I remember when only the rich had a private line. The rest of us had a 2-party or 4-party line and if you tried to make a call and somebody else was using it, you just hung up and tried later. (If the line sounded open you knew someone was listening in.)

I use a 5-digit number for the cheaper rate when calling out of state. I punch in that number and use memory and I can handle that. The normal telephones cannot store that many numbers, so I adapt. However, they are stretching not only my memory, but my telephone's memory as well.

Could Alexander G. have envisioned the "tree?" A human voice is a rarity these days. We go through a gamut of questions and punch in numbers until finally we hear, "To speak with a representative punch zero." They are all busy, but they play music for us. Sometimes the wait is so long that I'd like to hang up, but I hesitate because they keep reminding me that my call is very important to them. I'd like to tell them that my time is very important to me, but nobody is there to hear me.

Would Alexander G. have known that in the future people would be talking to each other EVERYWHERE? Whether it is on the beach, in a car or strolling along the street, people are talking. In my quiet library the other day, a contractor was conducting business and obviously talking above some hammering on the other end.

How did we live before cell phones? Very quietly. We can't go back.

E-mail Betty Lammers at betty@homefrontmagazine.com.

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