The Telephone

When I was little we had a telephone. That is not a big deal now, but it was back then. Our phone was big almost two feet long and hung on the wall It had a crank on it. You had to turn this crank real fast and that got you the operator. You told the operator either the number or the person you wanted to call and she would “put you through”. There was a catch to the phone use. We were on a sixteen party line. That was a lot of people all using the same line. It was very difficult to get through. We have road rage now, we had phone rage back then. Often people would get into arguments and tell each other off because they were on the phone too long.
The telephone was my mother’s entertainment. It was called “rubbering”. Not eavesdropping. Eavesdropping was against the rules, but listening in to other people’s conversations was alright. My mother didn’t drive, she worked really hard day and night, but occasionally she would listen to her neighbors talk on the phone. She then had interesting things to tell my dad when he came in from the fields.
I still remember our telephone number back then. It was 1647WJ. How’s that for a phone number? It was my job to remember it for some reason and I have to this day.
I now have two telephones, a home phone and a cell phone. I have difficulty programming them and remembering to take the cell phone with me. People get upset with me because I don’t answer the phone, but you see I don’t need my phone for entertainment, I have a computer.