Day 4 - 143 -- Telecommuniations

Telecommunications -- something easily taken for granted.  Owning a new phone has made me think more about telephonic experiences over the years. As a child we had a big black rotary dial metal phone glued to the wall. The spiffy plastic phones in rainbow hues arrived on the scene when I was in late grade school. Our first one was black. In high school we got a beige one with push buttons. This is when having an extension phone -- a second phone on the same line -- became cool -- no need to run up the stairs to answer the thing if there was one downstairs, too.  Having one in my bedroom was ruled unnecessary <smile>. My cousin lived outside of town during high school and had a party line -- a line with several households on one line each with their own unique ring -- one long and two short, three short, two long, and so on. Since it was one line, only one call could occur at a time and anyone could pick up and listen to the conversations. We did devise a bit of a code to keep things semi-private when chatting. Much later in life, I began to use cordless phones at home so there could be two or three handsets around the house that allowed me to walk around while talking and not be tied to an 18 inch or in a good place a 36 inch coil cord.

Years later when working for the provincial government, we were issued a cellular phone for use when travelling, though the cell zone was only along the major highways, so if heading into the wilds of southern Saskatchewan, it would be of little use. We had one phone for the whole office of 20+ travelling people. It was the size of a small paving stone -- as in big compared to those today. My first cell was much smaller but still thick like a paving stone, but far narrower. I purchased a flip-phone when out of the country to use while away, since mine only worked in Canada. The tiny brick phone was the one I replaced yesterday with a smart phone -- an entry level type not the latest version. I did return to the store today to ask them to help with the WiFi connection difficulties. That problem has been resolved. I'm sure there will be others before I get the hang of this newer phone type.

Lyrics from the song today bring forward yet another phone that is mostly part of the past, too -- the pay-phone. The challenges involved with this form of communication are central to the song, as is the single phone per household that was common when this song was in heavy play on the radio. In this song, the band and singers do a great job with raw, palpable emotion of the situation. Each person having their own phone would seem easier, but then again, not likely. Enjoy!

Sylvia's Mother -- Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show