October 8, 1986
I was following the phone cord through the bedroom searching for the source of the ringing I could hear but could not find when I decided some of the new phones leave something to be desired. I think Alexander Graham Bell was a great guy. But I’ll bet he never dreamed when he invented the telephone that it would turn into the instrument we use today.
I remember the days when phones were black boxes which sat on the living room table. You always knew where they were and who was using them. Such is not the case with today’s phones. They are one piece, cordless, portable and often hard to find as they color coordinate their way into almost every room in the house. Many are molded into shapes that defy identification as a telephone.
The old phones had dials and once you learned to operate one you could make a call from anywhere. Not so anymore. We have three phone in our house and none are the same. One has a dial, another push buttons. They are attached to radios, clocks and other objects. All are capable of being unplugged which means when you hear a ringing you must decide from which room it is coming because although we have three phones we have twice as many outlets.
I must admit the new jacks are a big improvement over the old ones. They are a lot harder for your young children to disconnect. When my kids were small one of the first things whey learned was if you want to get Mom’s attention just pull the phone cord out of the wall plug while she’s talking.
Of course like most youngsters today our children progressed rapidly in their knowledge of the telephone. It was no time before they had learned to dial or push buttons on their own. I remember that first call to Grandma! How proud we all were that our daughter had learned to operate the phone. But her knowledge didn’t stop there. Now she knows how to reverse charges and how to charge other calls to our number. At least when the operator calls and asks if Beth can charge a call to us I know she’s still well enough to lift the receiver.
GCB