I was peeved earlier this week. So much so, I found myself reflecting on the days of house phones and long distance calling.
There was actually a time you used the landline after 9 pm, I believe, and you were charged less. If calling before 9, you watched the clock to bring conversations to a squeeching halt. At the end of the month, the phone company sent the bill with every number called long distance.
I hated pulling a thick phone bill from the mailbox ’cause that meant a heapa money was going there.
To drive home my point, had we still been using this system, I’d have never called the person who ticked me off ’cause I would’ve been too frugal to do it.
Long distance calls were charged to the caller, not the recipient. Before caller ID, you had no idea who was on the other end. If you were spatting with someone and knew they wanted to talk, you could let the phone ring until the cows come home. You know, just close the door and go into a room where nothing was ringing.
Before caller ID, there were answering machines. In summer, my mom would call from work, harassing my sis and I about a list of chores as long as my body she’d written out.
Well, folks…
Naturally, I wasn’t trying to spend my summer doing things unrelated to fun. So, to that answering machine she went. I mean, wasn’t anything she could do. She had to stay at that job to keep a roof over our head.
One day, she kept calling and calling. It was really annoying. I was trying to watch TV. She was hollering and going on. Breathing hard into the machine. We just laughed and replayed that message until we couldn’t laugh anymore. I mean, really! I know her mama raised her better.
Portraits on Tiffany 
My Grandmother harrassed my Mom at times taking up an entire side of answering machine tape
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You just can’t put technology in the hands of everybody. I remember when the internet was gaining momentum and certain groups said it was the devil, the work of Satan. Well, with Satan and God residing in us…Need I say more?
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Haha. Y’all Mama was good, cuz let me NOT had answered the phone and I was supposed to be home?!
It was curtains. And I was the only child for a long time. My mom had an unbearable temper.
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My mom was crazy-mean. We just took chances, especially when we could be in control. Then came that famous question parents ask, ‘Why you do such and such?’ Our genius response was always, ‘I don’t know.’ That frustrated my mom even more, which didn’t make sense to ask since that was ALWAYS the response.
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Yeah, nah. I wasn’t testing my mom like that. She had neighbors looking out for me. I had snitches in the neighborhood. Lol. And THEY LEGIT snitched. 😂😆🤣
My mom was ordered by a court system to take anger management classes or serve more time in jail. That should give you an idea of what I went through because of her temper.
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Sorry it was that extreme for you. I think that was the beginning era of independent women and single motherhood. My mom was always and to this day, It was so hard. Yadah, yadah…
What irritated me was getting on the phone to tell the entire family. A form of humiliation, I think but kids are supposed to do crap.
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