Growing up, anywhere you wanted to go it was at least a mile walk. No sidewalks, no street lights, all alone, no cell phones and no texting.
Your night would start with a phone call to your friend which went something like this:
"Hello, may I speak to Michelle, please?"
"Yes, hold on one a minute please and I will get her for you."
"Thank you, Mrs. Schultz."
This might sound silly and a waste of time to most of you under a certain age but looking back, I'm thankful for that week. It taught me many things I still use today.
It reinforced manners.
How to properly say 'Hello' to someone was important back then because it could have been anyone in the world calling your house.
Back then you had no idea who was going to be on the phone when receiving a call. A polite tone was a must. The call could have been a business call for your Father or Mother, from the doctor or the priest from your church. You never knew.
With only one or two phones, at the most, in most houses, it also taught you how to ask politely if you could use something that was an important machine in your home.
If you were on the phone no one else could call your house. If they did they got a busy signal. A busy signal meant you had to wait about 15 minutes, try calling again in hopes that whoever was on the other line had hung up so you could speak with your friend to set up plans for the coming night.
You also had to learn patience.
If your parents were waiting for an important phone call you were told you could not use the phone and if the phone rang and your friend was the one calling, you were to say you would have to call them back. This was not something you even thought to argue over with your parents.
Most phones were in a central location in your home. This meant that anyone that wanted to hear every word you said could. There was no such thing as having a private phone conversation in most homes.
Was it a pain growing up this way? Yes. If you had brothers or sisters it was even worse because you had to learn to share.
Learning patience once again.
Learning to respect your parents and their rules was important because the phone privileges could be taken away at the drop of a hat.
If you lived out in the country, like I did, it meant you were cut off from all your friends until you went to school the next day.
Having a way to communicate as a privileges also taught you the importance of having meaningful conversations when you finally received your turn to be able to use the phone. You knew you only had so much time to be able to get what information that was important out before you were told to get off the phone.
There were times at night when your parents were not expecting any phone calls. If you were lucky, asked your parents to use the phone, told you could, you would stretch the phone cord as long as it would go into a corner as far away from everyone you could get and talk quietly to your friend for sometimes up to an hour!
Those times were rare and you knew they were.
Phone conversations were special. Long phone conversations were even more special because they did not happen very often.
You learned at an early age how to appreciate being able to talk to a friend. How conversations were important and not something to be rushed through but enjoyed.
I also think it taught you how to have a real conversation. You know the one where your friend says something while you really listen to what they are saying. The exchange of words or stories then goes back and forth. Much laughter is had by you both and you learn more about each other by listening and telling stories to each other.
In the end, making your friendship closer. You also leave the conversation in a good mood because you felt you were heard and your stories were treated with as much respect as you did their stories.
I think the art of conversation has become a very rare thing to be cherished. Real conversation's are even better when they were not planned. You are taken by surprise when four hours have gone by and find you don't want to hang up the phone because you are having so much fun but you realize dinner needs to be started so you hang up, run around like Batman and Robin being chased by the Joker while trying to get dinner made before your hubby gets home! 馃榿
Just my thoughts for today!
