WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM AN OLD PHONE?

My daughter has always loved old phones and decided to search for the perfect model. She chose this 1941 black desk model complete with cloth cord. Doesn't this bring back memories? I can remember when my Grandma had one like this. I loved playing with the dial.

Yesterday when we received the much anticipated item, I began thinking about what an old phone says about us. This one attests to the fact that we once built things to last. It has been refurbished and actually works, still its obvious that it was designed for endurance just by the materials used. The body is metal and the handset is Bakelite. When you pick it up it is SOLID. This baby weighs a whopping 6 pounds!

Another statement made by this beauty is that we used to live at a slower pace and that was ok. Dialing was an event. No hurry up push buttons. You dial and wait. The higher numbers take longer to dial. Oh, well, I thought it was fun! Are we really in that big a hurry? Speed dial? Why? I wonder how much time is really saved by the faster dial method? Is it a significant amount? This phone is from the days when moms were home and spent their whole day homemaking, preparing nice meals, doing laundry, ironing and starching shirts, welcoming kids home from school with cookies and milk and talking to the neighbors over the garden fence or from a phone like this. I kind of miss that, how about you?

Another thing I remembered was that we could not get into near as much mischief with a phone like this. Most were plugged into the only phone jack in the house and usually there were other family members close by--no private, sneaky conversations! And if that weren't enough, the party line was another check on morality and behavior. The neighbors could pick up and listen in at any time and probably often did!

One other significant thing....you couldn't carry this with you! Your arms would break! It meant you had to actually leave the thing behind in the house and that's not all bad! Are we really so important that we all need to be "available" at any given moment? One of my pet peeves is that it's hard to carry on a conversation with people anymore. The ringing of cell phones is so common and many people will answer even if they're in the middle of another conversation. Where have our manners gone?

I think the admonition in the center of the dial is great, LISTEN....For Dial Tone....do we ever take time to stop and listen to anything or anyone anymore? I wonder.

For just a little while, I'd like to go back to some of the old ways--maybe it would be a real eye-opener to see how far we've come! Anyway, we're enjoying this lovely addition to our home. It's romantic to think of what all might have been said over this phone in it's lifetime. Since it's a 1941 model, I feel quite sure that someone called a loved one to check on them when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Maybe someone got a call asking them to the Senior Prom. Maybe someone else called to cry with friend when President Kennedy was shot. Who knows what all this phone has heard. In this day and age when traditional values, freedoms, justice, and just about everything else is up for grabs daily, I long for the stability of things we used to value.

An old phone can say a lot. Blessings, LORI