Sweet Nostalgia

Long Distance, Long Ago

by Karen Richman

Try and tell a young person today that once upon a time in the "olden days," a long distance call was a big deal. A really big deal. Chances are, they’d laugh at you because today it’s nothing to grab a Smartphone from the back pocket of your jeans and within seconds be conversing with a friend in Omaha.

Not so in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Long distance then was, first and foremost, expensive. People didn't have long distance calling plans, nor routinely make, nor receive, long distance calls; and when they did, it was usually to deliver bad news. If the phone rang, and an operator said, "I have a long distance call for ______," there was a sharp intake of breath as your mind raced wildly, trying to ponder who had died or what horrible event might have occurred. And yet another curious thing about long distance decades ago was people felt they had to raise their voices five decibels to be heard because it was long distance, and that meant a long way away.

“IS THAT YOU, DAVID?”

‘YES, YES, IT’S ME. CAN YOU HEAR ME?

“YES, I CAN HEAR YOU. HEY, MARSHA, COME QUICK, IT’S COUSIN LOU IN SACRAMENTO, COMING IN LOUD AND CLEAR!”

If you did have to make a long distance call, most folks waited until Sunday, because Sunday was the day you could call for the lowest rate. Second choice would be late at night, which only served to reinforce the idea that a phone ringing "after hours" must of course be a harbinger of the worst news possible. So long distance was not the casual "no big deal" it is today.

But the mothers of the '50s and '60s were smarter than the phone company. They had a way around all this. Somehow they must have all convened when no one knew, least of all the telephone company...and that's phone company, NOT phone companies, because in the '50s and '60s there was only one telephone company...no competition, no diversification.

So I figure all the mothers in America got together and invented.."the fake phone call." It was the foolproof way their children could call home from whatever corner of the country they happened to be and not have it cost a cent. It was nothing short of brilliant!

The fake phone call worked like this: Little Debbie or Stevie would pick up the pay phone, plunk in their dime, and dial the operator. The first thing that happened was their dime automatically came back, since operator assisted and information calls were free. The second thing was...they got a live body! Not a recording. Not James Earl Jones. Not a menu. But a live human being who ostensibly worked at a nearby telephone center and was not in Bombay pretending to be in Illinois. When that person said, "Operator, may I help you?" they meant it! They wanted, and more importantly, could help you.

But all their sincerity was for naught because Debbie or Stevie was going to fool them...use them shamelessly. In plain English, they were going to screw the phone company. This young innocent would say, "I'd like to make a collect person to person long distance call to Debbie Shelton or Stevie Denton at area code 201, 555-2389." Then the helpful operator would dutifully place the call, Debbie or Stevie's mother would answer...(Note: it was always the mother, never the father who answered, even if he was sitting right next to the phone)...and the operator would say, "I have a person to person collect call for Debbie Shelton from Susan Shelton, is she there?"

Mom: "No, she's not." Operator: " When do you think she will be in?" Mom: "Oh, maybe in an hour." Debbie: "Fine. I'll call back then after I finish dinner with the little money I have left."

Voila! Message was delivered. Free and to the point. Mother knew Debbie was safe, was eating, and needed money. What else was new? But moreover, she knew all was fine in Debbie's world, and that's what mothers always need to hear.

Today, pay phones are gone, and most young people have never even seen a telephone booth. We have become a cell phone-obsessed society. People walk or drive down the street with cell phones attached to their heads, playing games on them in doctors' offices, carrying on loud conversations in restaurants and theatres, and sending inane text messages back and forth because...they can.

And the interesting thing about this is, although we all have these phones, and most of us have unlimited long distance at all hours of the day, night, and weekend, with the capabilities of doing damned near everything in life on that phone, we are all so busy punching in and text messaging and playing and displaying and diversifying the music on our ring tones, checking our e-mail, buying movie tickets, and ordering lunch, we have completely lost the art of one-on-one conversation. We no longer need face to face interaction with anyone, nor do we have to directly speak with them.

We've disconnected; yet when I look over my shoulder I can see whole families huddled excitedly around the phone because Uncle David and Aunt Nancy are making their annual long distance holiday call, and even though there was only one phone in the house on which to hear them and there may have been static, it was indeed a wonderful thing.