
Today I welcome my friend Elise, who blogs over at Everyday Goddess. She's an amazing friend. Enjoy...
The other day my 8 year-old daughter and I were clearing off her desk. There were a few coins, pennies, dimes, and nickels mostly. This would have been an important find when I was her age. I would have spent it all to form quite a stash of penny Bazooka bubble gum. Or I could have stuck it in my backpack to be prepared for an emergency pay telephone call. I mentioned both of those uses to my daughter. She gave me that bemused expression which means, what are you talking about mother?
Once upon a time, dear child of the new millennium, cell phones did not exist! Even in surburbia where we live, street corners had what was known as a "public telephone booth." It was like a glass closet with an attached to the wall stool, a ledge to hold your things, a local white pages telephone book wired to the ledge and the piece de resistance, the pay telephone.
The first ones were rotary dialed. I believe Grandma and Grandpa have a rotary dial phone in the basement. And yes, that's right, Dad has one in his house. Anyway, the person needing to make a phone call could step inside this "telephone booth" and call someone. They would first have to insert a coin. A dime was all that was necessary when I was your age. I remember a funny way to answer the home phone was by saying, "It's your dime, start talking."
My astute child asked: "You mean people could only be at home or in a "telephone booth" to call their friends? And they only had three minutes before they had to add in more money? Who is the "operator?" What do you mean there was only one ringtone? And everyone's sounded the same? How did you know if the phone call was for you? You couldn't program in a special ringtone for each person in your contact phone book? What if you wanted to play a game? How did people take pictures or videos? How did they download music? How could they check their calendars? Or the time? Are you just making this up? You know I wasn't born yesterday mom!"
Oh yes you were my lovely!