Homebodies - One ringy-dingy…

Details

Published on Friday, December 15, 2017

Rita Friesen
Neepawa Banner & Press

Okay, some things are as funny as I remember them. The Carol Burnett Show with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, the Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Catch them on Youtube. Lily Tomlin, starring as Ernestine, the telephone operator-”one ringy dingy (snort), two ringy dingies (snort)!! Is this the person to whom I am speaking?”- triggered a whole series of memories. The party-line! It was a time before farm homes were entertained by television.

A sure source of amusement, and information, was listening in on someone else’s conversation. We all had our own signal ring, ours was one long and one short. That sound entitled us to lift the receiver of the wall mounted phone box and engage in conversation. Any other combination of rings – except the one long extended ring which signalled an emergency and called everyone to listen in- any other combination of rings were temptations. Would the call be one of those long silences and heavy breathing calls between teenagers, or perhaps it would be a serious, gossip filled call between two of the matrons in the area. No matter, the procedure was the same. Ensure the house was quiet, gently lift the receiver off the cradle, breathe away from the mouthpiece, and pray no distinguishing clock would chime the hour while one was listening. Easy, in-home entertainment. Mostly factual information gleaned as well.

Then we progressed to the dial phone. New challenges. Maintaining the first three required non long distance numbers, what four letter word could we spell to call some unsuspecting victim? Now, back in that day, a four letter word was simply a word that was four letters long. Not a gross, disgusting, demeaning or crude word, just a word. To be honest, this game was best played when no adults were home. In our home the game reached its peak when cousin Bill was down for the summer. Our voices would be disguised, accents assumed, and calls made. To a back drop of three or more cousins giggling insanely as the prank call proceeded. Taking turns coming up with new sources of mischief. Again, easy, in-home entertainment.

Fewer and fewer homes have land lines, we rely on our cell phones to accompany us everywhere. They are our World Book Encyclopedia, our weather station, our tether with our friends and family. They are our gaming center, our mail box and our call center. Wee ones are adept at amusing themselves with a hand held device, as we were with our rattles and teething rings! Not quite, but almost! Voice activated, hands free, handy dandy devices.

This isn’t the only area in which we have witnessed giant strides. It is one that has affected most of us. My generation grew up with motorized vehicles and though we have seen many improvements, a car is still a car. Many of us blithely travel internationally as though it is our right, not a privilege. Changes are everywhere. There is, however, a sense of romance connected to the role of the telephone operator, the one who heard it all, and kept her silence!

(Guest columnist Beulah (Bea) Toews)