After the hurricane, I really wanted a phone. A phone with a cord that attached to the wall of a house that we owned. I wanted a number that said "This is where we live." I wanted an area code that didn't fritz out because the lines were all wonky because the water screwed up everything including the towers that beamed the transmissions into outer space. When we bought this house, I got just that. I got 203-535-0014. It was good. It was comforting. It attached to a wall and had 3 extensions.
It also has a ghost. Her name is Dawn Ricatelli. The phone almost never brought calls from friends, like the one in New Orleans. It brought mostly mechanical voices saying "This is for [pause] Dawn Ricatelli." Sometimes it brought an old woman's voice saying, "Dawnie? Dawnie pick up it's me! Are you there? Call me." I called the voice once, but she wouldn't talk to me. "Stop calling. I don't know you." Or she would whistle. She has a loud piercing whistle. I stopped trying to tell her that Dawn wasn't at this number anymore. I tried to tell her it was just a number to a house with some people she didn't know. It didn't work. Dawn owes a lot of people money. The ghost in the phone number doesn't seem to care. She lets the phone ring and waits for me or the answering machine to handle things for her.
The phone also has a price tag. In this case it costs about $50.00 a month. I am tired of paying money to AT&T. I want $50.00 for movies and books and fun things, so today, I sent Dawn and the number away. Now, I just have a cell phone. It still has a 504 area code. It says, "You are from New Orleans. You are carrying a piece of the past and can use it talk to the future." That's a pretty cool idea. It also says, "You are hip and cutting edge. You are in the 21st century." That's pretty cool, too. Still, it's strange not to have a land line. It's odd to know that no one can call when I'm not home, and wait for the beep, and leave a message for me to find at some future date. Now if they get a message, it's because I haven't charged my cell phone or haven't answered it, or am driving, or ignoring it. Overall though, it means I am free of the ghost of today and can rely on older ghosts which have proven themselves come hell or high water.
2 comments:
We went to cell-only a few years ago and have not regretted it.
And we had multiple ghosts in one of our phones. A couple dozen years ago (gulp) we opened a new phone account after a move, and suddenly were inundated with calls from angry customers looking for the garage door business that sold them faulty doors. After being yelled at for several months, we finally begged a new phone number out of the phone company.
Formerly all of CT was area code 203. Then code 860 was introduced. The home I live in now was given a 203 area code with what is now a woman with same number but 860 area code that lives near New London. I can't tell you how many calls I got from bill collectors. I would tell them to update records to the 860 area code to get her on the line. It was very frustrating.
At one point when I was a teen, my parent's phone was one digit off of a teen who was dealing drugs. High and drunk teens would call to speak to their dealer and get us. That was before answering machines existed and also when the phone would ring nonstop until it was picked up. We finally got disgusted and started telling the callers that he was not home now and they'd say they were mad they couldn't come down to buy their fix.
People with security alarms in their home have no choice but to use land lines.
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