Thought of the day: phones

Today, I have been thinking about phones.  I have one, Michael has one....I think all God's children have one these days and that's probably an understatement.  I'm sure many people have several phones....one for personal use, one for work, one "safe" for their small children, etc.  It seems we, as a society, can no longer function without having that contraption in our hands.  People walk with them, staring at them and not looking at where they are going.  They drive with them, staring at them and not looking where they are going (I'm starting to see a pattern here lol).  Everything in our lives seems to revolve around what that little piece of machinery is going to tell us next.  Interesting, but scary at the same time.

My neighbor Lois and I went to lunch today.  But, before that we stopped at the store she does her phone business so that she could get something taken off of her bill that she did not request.  Easy enough.  While we were waiting, the lady working the counter was telling a customer in front of us that the cheapest phone they had was $39.95.  Sounds reasonable to me.  She was, apparently, getting a phone for her daughter.  She went with the $350 version.  It just amazed me.  Granted, I know people that have paid thousands for their phone because they just have to have the latest version.  But, geez, I think of how many bills I could pay or groceries I could pay for what some people pay for that phone that they just have to own.

Anyway, Lois and I got to talking about phones yesterday when she showed me her new phone.  Not the $350 one, by the way.  Before cell phones, in my day, you either had a wall phone or a console.  And it was rotary dial...not even push button yet.  We had a wall phone.  It was in our kitchen.  I can't honestly remember if it was avocado green or yellow but either way it matched our kitchen.  Yes, one of those green, yellow and orange kitchens from the 70's.  And you could also only walk about 6 feet from the base of the phone....something these latest generations will never understand.

There was also a phone in my parents' bedroom.  It was a console for as long as I remember.  We did get a cordless phone in the mid 80's.  That was high tech in those days.  And I still know the phone number.  Sometimes I want to call it and see who picks up LOL  Grandmother had 2 phones as well....one in her hall and one in her den by her chair.  Somewhere I have a silver telephone receiver cover that belonged to her.  Sometimes I think it'd be worth it to find a console phone just so I can use the cover!

But what I was thinking of yesterday was when Aunt Sara moved in with my Grandmother.  Sara was hard of hearing.  She had 2 hearing aids but you still had to talk pretty loudly to her.  Not yelling, just loud.  She couldn't hear the phone though.  If she was talking on the phone, she could hear you just fine, but she couldn't hear it ringing.  Anyway, I remember that my cousin Peter came and rigged up a light to the phone for her.  It was one of those old plastic candles that we'd put in the windows at Christmas.  You know, the ones with the "wax" dripping down them and the one light bulb.  He hooked it up to the phone so that the candle would light up and Aunt Sara would know that it was ringing.  That was pretty ingenious of him, I think.

Sometimes I believe my phone is  a burden.  That's because it is at times.  I no longer keep it on me when I'm at home.  I keep it plugged into the charger, usually in a different room than I am in.  I just don't need another appendage that I have to maintain 24 hours a day.  It's nice but not that important to my existence.  Ah, well.  Phones are nice to have but I have no desire to submit to mine like I see so many people do nowadays.  I'd much rather look around me and take in life instead of googling it.

That is all.