Telephone. I remember using the telephone back in the 1960's as a kid. I used to like calling the time number a lot. Well, I didn't have a lot of people's phone numbers. If one of the neighbors kids wanted to talk to me, they just came over and knocked on the door and my mom would hear something like, Can David come out and play?
So communication with my friends was more of a in person communication.
The phones in those days were line phones as I didn't even hear of mobile phones until the mid 1990's. So I would not even use the phone that much in the 1960's, but just to call the time number.
I think I really started to use the phone is when I was in high school. This is when I would call friends to see if they wanted to see a movie. Of course trying to call girls on the phone was a thing. Of course I was shy, but I did call some girls on the phone.
After awhile I wanted a phone in my own bedroom. I understood that I can split the line from my parents room and run wire into my own room and tuck the wire under the carpet, is how I could have my own phone in the room, without calling the telephone company as I knew it would cost more if I did it that way.
Well, I wanted to do it that way, as when I used to call girls, I would just go into my parents room where there was another phone on the same line as the phone in the dining room on the wall. That phone in the dining room wall was permanently attached to the wall and I didn't want to talk to girls with my siblings or parents looking at me.
After my work with the McDonald's in the later 1970's and after selling vacuums after that, I worked for the telephone company. I was a 411 operator. That force me to be on the phone for up to 8 hours or more if there was over time.
Before working there, I didn't even know there was such a thing as 411 or information. People calling in to get a phone number. I would always use the phone book and yet I would cover a whole area code and that was multiple cities as the phone book that I had would only cover the phone in that city at that time. By the time I retired I covered all the area codes of the USA and some provinces in Canada.
My dad heard that he could have a non-listed number or a number that was not printed in the phone book. He didn't like getting all those calls from salesmen.
I did move out of my parents house as I did get married in the later 1980's, but that only lasted for a little bit as she wanted a divorce later on. I kept the house and the phone line at the time.
Then the phone line was used for other things. I did order another phone line into my house as with the dial up internet of the later 1990's would cut off the internet when another call would come in. So with that extra line I would hook up my computer and a fax machine. Do people even use fax machines anymore? I still have my fax machine I bought back in the later 1990's.
It took a long time for me to want to get a mobile phone. I think I finally got my mobile phone back in 2003. It was a Nokia candy bar kind of style. I found that these phones would die after about 2 years of service.
Yes, I keep a lot of dead cell phones in my cupboard. The last phone before I got a smart phone was a Nokia flip phone. I like that phone as it kind of reminded me of the Star Trek TV show of the 1960's.
Well, I still have my line phone in my house as I like to keep it for emergencies.
Remember when 911 happened in September 11, 2001? Well, back at that time, mostly all the cell phones didn't work and the line phones did work during that day. Also at my work in the telephone company, it seemed like all hell broke lose as people called information just to tell us they couldn't make any long distance calls.
I would let them know that with a disaster as what came upon us actually crashed our phone system so that hardly anyone got a call through, but to call 411 which was on a special line.
So I do keep my line phone for emergencies such as a day like that day. I mostly use my cell phone, it is a smart phone, but some say it is dated, it is my Moto G.
Let's end with a scripture, as it is written, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13.
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Thank you, David.
