telephone | Anything is Possible!

Today’s SoCS prompt is the word, “collect.”

Back in the olden days we could make a collect call – long distance – which meant that the person receiving the call could accept or decline to pay the charges. This came in handy if you were calling from a phone booth or didn’t want to pay, or couldn’t, pay the charges. Local calls didn’t have an extra charge. If you were calling collect, you had to go through the operator who would ask the person being called: “I have a collect call from John Doe, will you accept the charges?” The person could then decide to accept the call or not. I guess some things are simpler these days, though most are more complicated.

Some things I used to collect as a child and adolescent were sea shells, rocks, records, books… I still have a lot of books, and a small collection of rabbits (not real ones) and snow globes. I also collect dust and cat hair, though that is not intentional. My mother collected angel figurines which I have inherited. Dad collected coins which I gave to my son. My x husband collected comic books. I think he cashed one in for a lot of money which was always the plan. My current husband has a lot of books, but so do I. And sea shells, I still have a lot of sea shells. And bottle caps, plastic ones, of a some day art mosaic. I probably have, oh, I don’t know, at least a couple hundred plastic bottle caps. Maybe I’ll make an mermaid, though something abstract – a spiral would be fun, too.

I like spirals and used to want a spiral staircase. Now, I think it might be too much work, and a little risky, but pretty. Fractals are cool, too. Repeated patterns, I think that’s what they are, but in a geometric design. Spirals and fractals are common in nature. Someone out there knows more than I do about their energy.

This window is somewhere in Texas:

Hey! I just realized that the telephone chord we used to have connected to the receiver was a spiral! In the beginning days they were only a few feet long. It was exciting when we got one that reached from the kitchen to the dining room! Who remembers talking on the phone and twisting the cord with your finger?

1957: Should I accept this collect call?

You can read all about Stream of Consciousness Saturday

and find a collection of streams at the blog of our host, Linda HIll:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS May 29, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is:

“…to your left.” When you sit down to write your post, look to your left. What is the thing closest to you? Write about the memories that thing induces. Enjoy!

To my left is my phone, quietly charging, waiting for the next spam call. Or something better. I’ve recently started getting spam texts. Nothing like in the old days, when we only got an unwanted call if we listed our female names in the phone book. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

When I was a teenager in the 70s, we had one phone for the whole family. It hung on the kitchen wall – a yellow phone on a yellow wall. Most of my phone calls with boyfriends, including my first boyfriend who much later became my husband, took place at the kitchen table. It allowed for some privacy if you didn’t talk too loud. I remember my phone number was 347-5359. Before that, when I was a young child, we had a black phone that sat on a table. They all had rotary dials that went, click, click, click. I vaguely remember having a party line which meant sharing a phone line with someone – you had to take turns, not just with your own family members, but with the other party.

“Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”

That’s what Lily Tomlin said as Ernestine on Saturday Night Live, right? Nope. It was Laugh In.

Look what I found when I went looking for Ernestine: It’s so random, just like SoCS.

Some people didn’t even have phones when I was a teenager. But they could use phone booths. In England, don’t they call them call boxes? Has anyone seen a real phone booth lately? Where have all the phone booths gone? They could be dangerous though. Back in the sixties, or fifties, well, in the olden days, there was a thing to see how many people, usually college students, you could squeeze into a phone booth. Then there was The Matrix phone booth scene. Is the Matrix really that old?

In the 70s, we didn’t have an answering machine, voice mail, caller ID, or any of that stuff. We just had to take our chances. If someone was already talking to someone else, we got a busy signal – buzz, buzz, buzz. No personal computers, no remote controls (not in my house anyway) and only three TV channels that went off the air around midnight most nights, at least in the early 70s. But it was better than the two tin cans with a string tied between them. That never worked for me. I found out just now watching this video that it didn’t work because I didn’t have the string tight enough. Finnovation demonstrates what type of “string” works best. Bright kids!

We’re never too old to learn. Just because something doesn’t work the first time, doesn’t mean it won’t work. Sometimes we just have to keep trying different ways.

Oh, and I finally got back in a kayak, making sure not to take my phone just to be safe. The first two photos are my son out on the lake in the mountains. The last one is a photo he took of me in my new kayak which is blue, green, and purple. These days, I take all my photos with my phone. In the 70s I never would’ve imagined taking photos with a phone that you carry in your pocket.