Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The title of this post is a telephone number – the way we used to say telephone numbers. Much has changed in telephones, and much of the change is for the better. Still, we have lost a lot of our culture about telephones.

The title of this post is a phone number. When I was a little boy, that was our phone number. For half a dozen decades telephone numbers in the U.S. were made easier to remember by saying a word at the beginning. Taylor meant TAylor with the T A being the numbers 8 2. Hence, TAylor 3 3983 was 823-3983. All that has gone away.

We used to talk a lot about making long distance phone calls. I don’t know if my 21-year-old son knows what a long distance call is. He just flips open his cell phone and dials. He doesn’t dial a “1” in front of the number regardless of where in the U.S. he is calling. All the calls are covered by his phone plan. Long distance? All that has gone away.

I used to buy phone calling cards. I would put minutes on them and use them when calling my wife from motels. I think you can still buy phone calling cards. They are useful from some motels and some pay phones. Almost all that has gone away.

Pay phones? I remember all too well calling people from pay phones. I always had enough change in my pocket to do so. In Louisiana, where I went to high school in the 1970s, you could make a pay phone call for 5 cents. That was at a time when pay phone calls cost 25 cents in most places. All that has gone away.

We used to dial phone numbers. There was a round thing on the face of the phone that we would push around in a circle and wait for it to return to the home position. Sometimes I hear someone use the phrase “dial this number.” All that has gone away.

It isn’t a big headline to declare that telecommunications in America has changed. I guess everyone knows that. What is a small headline is that a large part of American culture has gone away. So the next time you are watching an old movie with some young people, point at those things that have gone away. Tell the young people how we used to live. I think things are better today, but it is helpful to recall all those things that have gone away.