Does anyone else miss their
home phones?
I gave in and gave up my home
phone a while ago. It was costing me sixty dollars a month, give or take, to do
nothing but sit there on its little oasis of an end table. Nothing but the
wireless phone, fully charged, with its built-in answering machine occupied the
space. I have a cell phone, which everyone else uses to call me. That is
everyone but my mom.
My mother’s phone was programmed
with my landline number, and she refused to change it. If I didn’t answer my
home phone, she would leave her usual message, and the silly little green light
would flash interminably announcing her call. When I asked why she didn’t call
my cell, she explained, with exaggerated patience, that she didn’t want me
“charged extra by the cell phone company”. I tried to explain it, but she
couldn’t (or wouldn’t) understand.
Recently, I stopped using my
landline altogether, opting instead for my cell with all of the built-in
conveniences. I’ll admit, I don’t know how I lived without it. But, there sat
my home phone, mocking me with it’s unlit indicator. Taking up valuable real
estate on my end table. So, after considerable deliberations, I gave up my home
phone.
Today I had left home before
sunup, and was gone for the entire day. In the rush of getting everything done
that had to be done, I found I had lost total track of time. Apparently, even
more than I realized, because when I finally got home I dropped my bags and
walked straight to the spot where the phone/answering machine once rested.
Instead of the little burst of joy I might have received at a blinking light
telling me mom called, there sat an empty end table, in need of dusting.
I’d give up every piece of
technology to go back to the day when that stupid little green light blinked.
To press a button and hear my mom say, “Hey baby girl, it’s just me. Nothing
important. Call me when you can.”
But, since my mom passed, no one
called that number.
