Читать книгу The Dodo Collection - Steve Stack - Страница 26

One Phone in the Home

Do these ring a bell? (Pun noted, but not intended.)

‘Will you get off the phone? I’m expecting a call!’

Followed by:

‘No, you hang up first … no, you … I’m not … love you … bye … bye … bye … are you still there? Yeah, me too …’

If they do, then you probably remember a time when most homes only had one phone. This was before the days of mobiles, of course. If you wanted to make a call you often had to do so in front of your entire family, something that could prove incredibly embarrassing to a teenager in the first flush of love or bloody annoying to anyone trying to watch television while mother hollered down the mouthpiece to a deaf grandparent.

Don’t forget: no texts, no email, no instant messaging. If you wanted to speak to someone when you got home from school, or from work, then you had to do so using the only phone in the house.

That is, if your parents would let you, what with the cost of phone bills and all that. Nowadays kids spend more in a month on their mobile bill than our folks used to pay in a quarter for their landline.

Oh, how times have changed.

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