Looking Back My town, Barnesville, Ga, was one of the last places to adopt the new technology of telephones that did not require the intervention of a telephone company operator. I dont remember exactly, but I was either in the 3rd or 5th grade when rotary phones were brought into the classroom so we could learn how to use them. It provided a nice break from the nuclear bomb drills where we practiced hiding under our desks with our eyes closed. The new phones were to be installed in about a year. I remember one of the last phone calls I made using the old system. I lived with my grandmother, and our number was 355. Two of my friends Harry and Larry Waller were the sons of our county sheriff and their number at their apartment over the jail was 96. I picked up the phone, and an operator asked: Number please, and I said 96. She replied: David are you calling Harry or Larry, and I said yes. She said: They are over at Danny Foshees house. Do you want me to ring over there? What a pleasant memory that is. I confess that I am a technology geek, but I dont know how to operate most of the wonderful stuff I admire. It amounts to a bunch of electronics that blink 12:00 all the time, but non the less they fascinate me. When we lost that human interaction did we lose something immeasurably valuable?
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 13:05:51 +0000