The other day, I noticed the 7-year-old granddaughter of one of my neighbors dialing a call on a cell phone as I stood talking to her grandmother. “Your phone, or her mother’s?” I asked.
“Neither,” said Grandma. “Amy told Santa Claus that she wanted a phone for Christmas and I got her one. She said most of the girls in her class had their own cell phones. I pay the bill.”
It has perplexed me since. I am intrigued when I see someone walking alone and chatting away. A few decades ago, I would questioned that person’s sanity. Now, if I spot the earplug, I know the person is not talking to herself. But a 7 year old?
I have written about my childhood in a small southern town. Like every family, mine had one telephone that sat on a stand in the living room. To make a local call, you lifted the receiver and told the operator the number you were calling. Often, she knew the number, even if you did not but named your party. For long distance calls, you asked for a special operator. Long distance calls were expensive. To pick up your phone and hear the operator say you had a long distance call triggered an alarm. Who had died? What else was wrong? Sometimes, the operator said that the charges were reversed and would you accept a call from Aunt Mildred. Yes, but with apprehension. If the call was just a matter of chatting, that was the purpose of penny postcards.
A few years later, when I went off to college, there was one phone on each floor of the dormitory. Incoming calls rang and rang until somebody answered. Most of us would go get the person being called. But some were smart assed and just left the phone dangling. It was not a pay phone and charges for outgoing calls had to be reversed. In the first weeks, I called home weekly. My mother would accept the charge. About the third time, she said my father wanted to speak to me. I was surprised since he seldom spoke on the phone when he could help it. “Hey, dad, how are you? I’m fine. Your mother will send you some stamps,” and he hung up.
A few years later, colleges started wiring their dormitories. Both of our students had their own phones. The only problem was the poachers who got to them and ran up big long distance bills. My son removed a small part from the receiver when he was away, thwarting the poachers—and thwarting callers if he forgot to put it back when he returned to his room.
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