Last week I got rid of my landline.
It's not like we ever used it. As a matter of fact, on my last bill, we'd only used 17 minutes of call time. That's way less than a minute per day.
Obviously we are not big phone talkers around here...
The phone mostly rang for robo calls. One or two calls in 30 would be someone I needed to talk to.
Though it is astonishing to me, that my instinctive action when I come home after being gone any length of time, is to check the caller i.d. to see what calls we've missed. I've caught myself several times this week, walking to the phone, that is no longer there, to check the caller i.d.. Not to make phone calls.
Sigh.
It was time for it to go.
We've replaced that phone with a basic flip phone for the kids when they are out and about, or when I am. This way I can get ahold of them, and vice-versa.
I'm 38, and I now have to learn a new phone number.
Sigh.
It's the end of an era, that's for sure.
I remember way back when phones had rotary dials. And cords. Attaching the receiver to the base. I remember my mom having the super long stretchy cord (like 20', or something crazy like that), so that you could duck into the bathroom, or some other place for quiet and privacy when talking on the phone.
Party lines? Who needs party lines? We were all in the same room, hearing half the conversation.
And if that wasn't enough, you could stealthily lift the phone off the receiver in another room, very slowly and carefully releasing the hang up button. And if you were really quiet, you could ease drop in on a whole lot of conversation before you were caught. Not that I ever did that to any of my siblings or anything....Just speaking theoretically, of course.
I remember when we first got a cordless phone. Oh the freedom! Oh the privacy! Oh the efficiency!
Talking on the phone was no longer a passive endeavor. You could paint your nails, or wash the dishes, or weed the garden, or scrub the floors...all while talking to your BFF.
Speaking of the BFF...I still have her childhood phone number memorized. And that knowledge comes in handy when calling her parents. Which I do, every once in a while.
Kids these days...they will never know what it is to have an index of phone numbers not at their fingertips, but impressed indelibly into their brain.
Who needs to memorize phone numbers anymore? Just click on the contacts list on your mobile phone, and there's the required number. I may be able to rattle the BFF's childhood phone number off just.like.that. but I have to think half a second to remember her current number. Which she has had for years and years and years already.
Sigh.
I remember the phone calls to my BFF and her siblings. From myself and my siblings. The five of us would call the four of them, and talk through the ranks for hours and hours.
Those were the days.
That's how friendships used to be built.
"It's my turn! Get off the phone! Mo-om!"
Oh the nostalgia!
Sigh.
Do you still have a landline? Or have you completely converted to mobile phones?