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| Photo of the French provincial phone I've had since the 1970s. |
We received our Yellow Pages books today. Yes, we got two
of them. One was the same larger size in diameter that many of us remember –
only it was less than half the thickness of the ones we used in years gone by.
The other one was a “companion” book. Just what does that
mean? Why in the world do the Yellow Pages need a companion? Perhaps it’s just
a more convenient size that we can use to carry around with us. Really?
If I need a number today, I usually just look it up on
the whitepages.com or the yellow pages.com websites. Googling works, too. It’s
so much easier in today’s world of technology. Besides, many people no longer
have land lines and aren’t listed anywhere anyway.
But I’ll have to say that in this instance, I honestly
miss the “good ol’ days.” I can remember the excitement of getting our new
phone book each year. When I was a small girl, the White Pages and Yellow Pages
were all together in one book, even for a city as large as Memphis. As soon as
it would come, I (always the avid reader) would take it to my room to start
reading it. Yes, I read the phone book. That might sound geeky…okay it probably
is…but I loved it!
There was so much to learn from those books in those
days. There was always a history of the city, plus information about the
government to read, and then there was the fun of looking up all of the
families of my friends. Naturally, the first listing I invariably went to was
ours. Just checking to make sure everything was written correctly, I assured
myself each year. It always was, thank goodness.
When I was sixteen, I got my own phone for my birthday.
It was a beautiful little blue Princess phone and was a separate line from the
family’s line. It was actually in my own name, which meant that my name would
be in the phone book, too! So now I was looking up my own name, as well as the
names of my friends who also had their own phones. Oh, how I wish I had a photo
of that little phone, but I can’t find one. Nevertheless, since blue is my
favorite color, the mental picture that I have of it in my head is still very vivid.
For this blog post, I had to settle on a photo of the
faux French provincial phone that I bought for myself back in the 1970s. It was
always hooked up to our phone system, and I used it often over the years.
Probably my favorite story about that phone involves my
youngest (and late-in-life) child who was born in 1985. By that time I had
moved the phone to our upstairs bedroom and rarely used it. Punching buttons
was so much easier. One day when I had him in that room with me, I sat on the
bed to make a quick phone call. At the tender age of three, my exceptionally
smart son exclaimed, “What is that?” I’ll admit to being shocked and
then started laughing. Of course, he had never seen a rotary phone being used
and didn’t realize that the “pretty thing” in our bedroom was a phone!
I’ll also admit that even in that time frame, I was still
reading that phone book when it came every year. By then, there were two
separate books: the White Pages and the Yellow Pages. Naturally, I had to read
through both to get all of the information that was provided about the history
of the city, county, and state, and all of the other tidbits of information
that was in those books. I had, however, stopped looking up my friends. (One
does eventually grow up.) As a teacher, I often used the information I gleaned
from those books in my history classroom. I can remember the surprise that most
of my students had that so much information could be found in the phone book!
I guess I was still reading the phone books until just a
few years ago. We dropped our land line, and any information provided by those
books was easily accessible by then through my computer - and even from my cell
phone. But the genealogical treasures those phone books hold are still valuable
and, thankfully, copies are held in repositories at our local genealogical
libraries and also at our county archives.
I have to admit to experiencing a twinge of nostalgia
today when I saw those two little Yellow Pages books. I guess I’ll sneak a peek
in a day or two to see what’s actually provided by them these days.
More importantly, I have
to find out what a “companion” is!
@2015
Copyright by Carla Love Maitland
Cool, Carla. Don't miss the party line we had until I was about 10 (early 1950s) - having to wait until the other eavesdropper hung up with a little click. Remember those little telephone tables? With space beneath the raised shelf, just big enough for the telephone book? Everyone I knew had one. I miss hearing the friendly voice of the Operator - sometimes when I need a long-distance number, I straight away ask for the operator's assistance... they DO listen in as they try to get the number you need to you silently. Then one can explain and chat a smidge.
ReplyDeleteI remember all of those things! We only had a party line for a couple of years, but I do remember our phone number: 57025. (It would later change to BR-57025.) I think I remember most of the phone numbers I've had over the years. There was so much more that I could have written about, but I had to limit it to these things. We had the telephone table, too. I actually have a photo of me sitting at that table in the hallway with a sweater over my head thinking it made things more "private!" LOL My great-aunt was a telephone operator down in Mississippi in the 1920s. That's how she met my great uncle. Wonderful stories of those 'old days' that those of us "of a certain age" have! Thanks for your response. :)
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