March 20, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. The Telephone.

I have always lived with a telephone in our house. One telephone for everyone who lived in the house. In our early years, we had a phone line that was used for other families so if they were using the telephone, you could listen to their conversation. It was called a party line. Of course, when another party was on the phone, we were forced to wait until they hung up. I might be wrong but I think that up to 5 families could be on the same line. It was actually kind of fun to listen in on the other conversations but mostly I was not allowed to listen. And long distance was expensive and was cheaper in the evenings. People older than me never did get comfortable talking on the phone but my generation used the phone all the time. In 1960, the Salvation Army International Staff Band toured Canada. Ken and I lived over a hardware store. Alf Andrews , a baritone player in the band, stayed with our family in Vancouver the last time they toured and when I was in London for a conference, I had dinner in the home of Alf and his wife. I invited him to come to dinner in our apartment. While he was visiting, I made a phone call to his wife so Alf could speak to her. They had not spoken since the beginning of the tour. I had arranced with his wife to be sure she would be available and the call went through immediately. Alf was surprised and delighted to be able to hear his wife loud and clear. But I recall their hasts to keep their call short because they did not incure too much expense for me. Clearly, they were uncomfortable talking long distance on the phone. Now we talk and text all the time to people all over the world. And every person has their own phone. It is a wonderful world with the telephone. I own only one land line, and that is in Nova Scotia. Even though land lines work better than cell phones, everyone uses a cell phone. Tim Wu was the first young peson who did not install a land line in his first apartment in DC. He just used his cell. That was a long time ago. Now I enjoy conversations with my friends all the time. This week I talked for ages with friend Florence and tonight I chatted with Doreen. I made good use of a telephone when I was a teenager and I make good use of my cell phone now. This is truly a wonderful world of telephones.