Hello? Can you hear me?

By Jan Penton-Miller
Columnist
“Mike, call my phone for me please. I went to a couple of places on my way here, and I just
realized I don’t have it.”
“Sure. Let me call it for you.”
Mike punched in my number and was practically yelling “HELLO, HELLO HELLO” into his
phone. Someone answered and put the phone back down. We could hear people talking, but
whoever answered the phone wouldn’t answer us.
Now I know why it’s so imperative to keep up with all those annoying passwords! We have tried
and tried to locate the missing phone, but it looks as if we will just have to purchase a new one.
That old saying “you live and learn” surely rings true in this situation.
When I purchase my new phone I will definitely put on the find my phone app. Since I don’t
particularly love all the technology, sometimes I’m a little slow to get on board with the new best
thing, but this tracking technology would have helped tremendously in this case.
Maybe someone answered our call to silence the phone because they were busy, and it was
pushed under a piece of furniture. Possibly, an unscrupulous person is trying to sell it. I may
never know, but I realize how much I have come to depend on my phone for a myriad of things.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to retrieve my information from the cloud, but this is an example of how
much all of our lives have become intertwined with technology in the last few years. Maybe I
have come to depend on my phone a little too much. Where once I had phone numbers
memorized, now I only know the most important ones.
It’s pretty funny that I remember my Mamaw and Papaw’s house phone number. My
grandparents had a party line. They lived 13 miles from the nearest town and several neighbors
shared the same line; thus, the name party line.
If I remember correctly it was difficult to have a private conversation because the more nosy and
or bored neighbors had a habit of listening in. It was pretty obvious when you heard them click
off the line after they had their fill of information.
The party lines were as close to Facebook as it got in those days. A person could listen in and
retell your story at will if they chose to do so!

Of course, I was just a little so my juicy conversation would be asking one of my cousins to
come over to spend the night. I suppose that’s why the neighbors got bored and hung up. They
had nothing to criticize or gossip about.
We are almost finished with our house rehab project and have met and worked with some
wonderful people to get the job done. Now the end is in sight, and I’ll have time to shop for a
new phone!

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