Hush! The old coot has a long-distance
call!
By Merlin Lessler
I remember when a long- distance phone
call was something special. When my mother’s hands would shake after she answered
the phone and the operator connected her to a long-distance caller. "Hush,"
my mother would shout. “Run and get your father!”
People seldom made long-distance calls back
then. Only when the information was too urgent to send through the mail. The
entire household shifted into an agitated state as word of a long-distance call
spread through the house. It usually meant something bad had happened: Aunt
Millie had a stroke; Uncle Harold was run over by a car or Cousin Pete had been
thrown in the slammer. Adrenalin shot all over the place.
It was a big deal in those days; my sisters
and I bragged that our family had a long-distance call. Sometimes, I'd run out
the door before the phone conversation actually got underway, to tell my friend
Woody, we had a long-distance call. “Wow," he’d exclaim, as I hustled back
inside, full of pride.
It was expensive; it was rare; and it was
exciting. Even so, it didn’t cost a dime if made a fake “person-to-person”
call. A college kid, for example, would ask the operator to place a person-to-person
call to his house after he arrived back at school. The operator would tell whoever
answered the phone, that she had a collect call for a specific person. Whoever
answered the phone, would say that person wasn’t there and hang up. Now the family
knew the kid made it safely to school. No charges were incurred when a
person-to-person call wasn’t completed.
The exciting, long distance call
experience has been nearly wiped out by the cell phone. People call & text long
distance, multiple times a day, without giving it a thought. It has no effect
on their phone bill. Well over 90% of us have cell phones according to Google.
I kind of miss the thrill of making a long-distance call. A real one. And, especially
a fake one.
Comments? – Send to mlessler7@gmail.com
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