August 26th…“WHAT WERE TELEPHONES LIKE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG?”
POEM – “Box On The Wall, To Talk, That’s All!” by N. Elliott Noorlun
What’s that you say?, A box on the wall?
And all you can do, Is talk, that’s all?
And what’s that wheel, With plastic holes?
As if attacked, By plastic moles.
And what’s that cord, On a two speaker thing?
You say the sound, Went ring a ding ding?
How archaic!, And simply gaudy!
With this you talked, To old Aunt Maudy?
Yup, grandchildren, When I was a kid,
We thought these were modern, Our phones we did!
Of course there was, A “party line”,
Where two, or more, Could talk just fine.
But if another, Wanted to talk,
You’d have to wait, Or grumble n balk.
Until the first parties, Cleared the wires,
After putting out, Their social fires.
The only “Speed Dial”, Was to see how fast,
You could spin your numbers, Round that plexi-wheel glass.
Now there weren’t no thing, Like answering machine,
You just had to hope, That the king or queen,
Of the house you called, Would be at home,
To answer your call, Before they’d roam.
If you called your lover, On that old phone,
And you really wanted, To be alone,
You could only go, Far as cord could reach,
To talk to your darling, Sweetie peach.
At best, you could maybe, Step outside,
As patio door, Behind you would slide,
To be able to talk, In tones of hush,
As you shared that lovey, Dovey mush.
Even so, there was something, Sweet about phones,
That inhabited all of our, Childhood zones.
Maybe they weren’t “smart”, Nor could music play,
But we thought they were fine, In the “talk only” day!!! 😉
