The Phone

I saw on the news yesterday that they may no longer deliver the white pages to your door. They have discovered that the majority of people no longer use them. I didn't know that it was mandatory that they did. They need permission from the State to stop. The phone company has lobbied for the last five years to stop this practice. There is your money at work folks.
This set me to thinking about how the telephone and its' use has changed over the years. I'm dating myself a bit here but that's alright. Do keep in mind however that the place of my childhood was a very small town way out on the end of eastern Long Island. I remember when we didn't have to dial our phone. You just picked it up and a voice came on the line,"number please." That was nice and the operator was usualy pleasent,unless she had had a spat with her husband. I fondly recall saying, I don't know the number but I want to talk to Grandma. Wait a minute. Then Grandma was on the line. Following that we got the dial system ! Imagine that,no operator required. Just do it yoursef. It was an amazing breakthrough in technology. Well.we did have things called a party line. Two or Three homes shared a common line and if someone else was already using it you had to wait your turn. Sort of a early form of call waiting,except you were waiting to call. When you picked the phone up you could hear their conversation too. Yes, people listened in. Cover the mouthpiece though or they'll hear you. Or so I was told anyway,I mean.I never did of course. If you had a party line,rich folks could pay extra for a private line, you had to listen for the number of rings. That was your way of knowing if the call was for you or the neighbor.I think ours was three quick rings,(ring,ring,ring) and the neighbor was two. You got used to it.
Then came the touch tone phone. Faster dialing was now possible. We called it dialing and I still do,wonder why that is ? Isn't it pushing buttons ? Too awkward to say I guess. Not only was it faster but you could play songs with it too. Wasn't long after the touch tone phone came out, small songbooks were available. Gone was the party line. If the other phone was in use you would hear. bleep,bleep,bleep. You just had to hang up and keep trying.
Moving into a more modern era was the cordless phone ! No, not a cell phone, but the handset didn't have a cord on it. When the conditions were right you could wander twenty five feet away and sometimes more. I remember buying one and it cost about eighty dollars. High tech stuff like that doesn't come cheap. Think it went to the landfill years ago. Eventualy we got to cellular phones. Things have changed a bit.
I don't have to dial at all. I could pre-program that sucker and just tell it to call Home ! Voice activated,'magine that. I still liked chatting a bit with the operator though. I could ask for any number too didn't have to plan that ahead of time. Seldom is the "busy signal" heard ! Now a voice comes on and says,leave a message after the beep or a number of other things. The only beeping I hear now is someone trying to call me. Took a while to figure out what that annoying sound was. I ignore it. If it is important they'll call back. Not doing the switching back and forth thing.
Yes, the phone has changed somewhat. Question is,if they stop delivering the white pages what are we supposed to use for booster seats during the holidays ? The phone book is what was traditionaly used. We also had a Websters dictionary that was real thick but I don't think you will find many of those in peoples home today. And the "strong men" used to rip them in half ! Another form of entertainment gone.
I hate the message if you want to hear this in English ,press one,Spanish press two etc. If I wanted to talk in Spanish I'd call a Spanish speaking nation ! Which,by the way, I can now do without assitance.
Well I suppose doing away with the white pages does make sense. No point in using all that paper and ink when we are too lazy to look it up. I'm like everyone else and just dial 411 or look it up on the computer.
I find it amusing the Government has to ok that. Who knew ? Ma Bell and the Government. They are old friends. Wrote a blog about that relationship awhile back.