Just thinking...

When I was a kid, my mother and grandmother exchanged letters every week. Letters were THE means of communication. It was a big deal to have a pen pal. We loved waiting for the mailman to come!

Mom chatted with the neighbors on our 4-party phone, but long distance calls were rare, special, and usual short...or meant bad news.

When I was a teenager, there were no cordless phones, and I certainly didn't have the luxury of a princess phone in my bedroom. My private calls meant stretching the cord as far is it would go and hiding under Dad's desk. There was no call waiting, and if the second party on the line picked up, it meant you needed to wrap it up.

It was such a big deal to get a private line thirty-odd years ago, and to have an extension upstairs! But long distance was still expensive, and letters were still the thing.

I spent much more time on the phone when cordless came out and I could talk while doing housework and such. And when I got my electric typewriter, and then computer, how many more letters I could churn out!!

Email ended a lot of the letter-writing, at least in my circle, but one of the benefits of email was that now I could email somebody early in the morning or late at night, as opposed to calling on the phone and waking up somebody!

Well, now I'm back a step--don't dare send an email (or Facebook message) at 5 a.m. because everybody gets a beep or music on the smart phone lying next to the pillow when an email comes through.

In a conversation the other day I asked, "What if somebody doesn't have a cell phone?" She looked at me as if I'd asked, "What if somebody has two noses?"

Smart phones, iPads, text, email, Facebook, etc. We communicate all the time now, but do we really communicate? Sometimes I wonder.

I just love reading your posts, B2Y.

Remember the old black desk phones that weighed 30 pounds each.....and had the phone cord that could cut you in half if you tripped over it? My kids will never know what that's like. You could just about kill someone with one of those things!

I loved getting letters.....and writing letters......but I'm so grateful for my computer now. It keeps me connected with all of you wonderful folks!

I remember thinking about this when my son in law was in Iraq. When Dad was in the service a letter from Dad was a time to celebrate. My daughter didn't get letters. He called as aften as he could which was pretty often and they email several times a day and then also used Skype!. So they continued to talk about everyday problems and argue. So they not only had the stress of him being in Iraz but they argues a lot about normal things.

It is no secret I use a tracfone because I think cell phones can be an intrusion in a persons privacy. Why can't a person go to the mall with friends and the friends enjoy each others company without some ones cell ohone ringing and then that friend has chosen to take herself out of the fun with her group. I have watched what looks to be a divorced Dad at a restruant and he is on the cell phone most of the time and his kids just sitting there getting into trouble. The other night I sat at Cracker Barrell and a couple sat next to us. Both of them immedialtely got out their phones and were either reading or playing games. They rarely talked, just had those cell phones going. Kids, and adults use their cell phone to call/text someone in the next room. Plus the charges. Oh, don't even getme started on that. I use about 100 minutes a year and it costs me around $100/year.

Yes, I do enjoy my computer and Nook but cell phone, I'll stick with my cheap tracfone.

B2Y great topic!

My maternal grandparents saved every letter they ever got from friends and family. Every now and then she'd pull them out and let us read them.

My paternal grandmother and her siblings wrote to each other fairly often. We lived next door to my dad's family and we shared a party line phone. Ours rang 2 rings, theirs rang 1 ring! I missed it when we went to single line phones. Oh and we only had to dial 4 numbers then.

My hubby and I wrote to each other often while he was in grad school. We couldn't afford to call more than once a week.

I used email a good bit up until about 2 years ago. Now I use facebook with family and inlaws. We don't live close and it keeps us in touch.

As for cell phones.. we have them, but my kids hate using them. They are just for emergencies or a quick text to let me know their plans. 3 phones and 700 shared minutes... we don't even use 400 of them each month.

You know I have weird memories.

In college (30 years ago) as part of a class I worked in a long-term psychiatric facility. As we walked through a building, in a quiet passage way, a patient grabbed my friend by the hair and held a HEAVY phone receiver above her head, threatening to smash it down. As we were college BFFs she grabbed my hair to stop me. We were at the end of the line, our classmates and teacher continued on through a door. In silence we stood. Him holding her hair and that heavy phone receiver above her head, her holding my hair tightly. It seemed an hour, but it was only seconds. Slowly he put the phone receiver down. This was back in the old days, when heavy old phones could kill.

Now I'm stealing memories a comedian remembered.

If you weren't home, the phone just rang and rang all by itself.
Remember dials? Zero took forever.

Me too, Kelly..

I still have some love letters from old boyfriends and letters from my best friend from the old days..(now, we text and e-mail..lol) I get them out, and old pics, to reminesse once in awhile. In the 50s and 60s, it was the best and funest way of keeping in touch.

I haven't heard a busy signal in ages. Do they still have busy signals?

Don't even try to find a phone booth. No wonder Superman isn't around.

I remember our kitchen phone mounted to the wall and it had a long cord. If you wanted to have a long chat sitting down, you had to stretch it to the steps and sit there. It was certainly more undivided attention than walking around with a cordless or cell phone doing other tasks at the same time.

I spent many teenage hours on that phone talking to my best friend or boyfriend. Such good memories.

My kids don't like to talk on the phone at all. Alex will talk more than Michael. They are more into texting as it seems all kids are now.

I honestly think that schools should have a semester long phone etiquette class required. I'm forever trying to get them to use proper manners on the phone! Maybe I'm being silly, but carrying on a conversation on the phone starting with a polite hello and ending with a nice goodbye shouldn't be that hard.

I blame some of it on caller ID. They just get too casual because they know who is calling. Sometimes I call home and one of the boys picks up and doesn't even say anything. Then I ask why they didn't say hello and they say "I knew it was you and you called us". Just say hello so I know someone is there!

Then there is rushing me off the phone. After I ask them something or tell them something they need to do I get "OK mom, bye" even if I'm not done. I really don't know how to teach phone conversation skills. I know part of it is because they have a cordless or cell phone sitting on the couch while watching TV or playing video games and I'm "interrupting". Maybe I have to get a phone that only reaches to the stairs....


IMHO, if they are not smart enough to turn the notifications to silent before sleeping with their smart phone, they deserve to be disturbed.

I actually use my smart phone as an alarm clock on my bedside table, but I turn it to alarm only before going to bed so that every e-mail, text or FB message doesn't disturb me. It's called common sense - something seriously lacking a lot these days!