Prank Calls and Spam

Remember prank phone calls? Not getting them, but the heart-pounding excitement and shame of delivering them. Of course, this was way back before Caller ID and *69.

A book I'm listening to, Laura Lippman's "Wilde Lake", brought back those fond, uncomfortable memories. The book is set in two different eras. Now and the early 1970's through 1984. The main character, a young girl described the phone set-up in their household.

We were a little younger than this when the push button phones came into our lives

In the Bullock home in Atlantic, Iowa in that same time period - a bit earlier, we started with two phones. The main phone was upstairs in the kitchen on the counter. Another on was on the wall where Mom spent a lot of time - the laundry room. She spent hours pressing our clothes on a huge machine and by hand with an iron.

During one period of remodeling, we got those modern "push button" phones (with extra long cords so we could actually sit in a comfy chair and talk) installed. At the same time, Susi and Cindy scored a lovely gold colored (matched their room) phone in their room. They didn't get their own "teen phone" number though. The Bullock girls were expected not to be big phone monopolizers, so Mom wasn't going to pay the extra $x per month for that luxury.

Besides slumber party group prank calls (my fingers didn't dial, so I'm not sure I could be prosecuted officer...), the downstairs laundry room phone was the location of my one big attempt at pulling off this rite of passage. I don't recall if I had a partner in crime or not. It may have been my next door neighbor Laurie Reinertson. All I remember is that whomever I called  with one of those "Prince Albert in a Can" jokes contacted the operator and she rang me right up to ask "to whom am I speaking?" Scared the shit right out of me! I stammered - my parents aren't here and ran out the back door, heart pounding. I spend the rest of the night freaking out - waiting for the phone police to come get me. Who knew they could reach back through the phone line like that?

I can credit that operator with my life on the straight and narrow. And my phone phobia. Just ask my former boyfriends. I would never play the "No, you hang up first" game. When they would suggest it... I would just hang up.

The book reminded me of more phone things - like calling long distance calls. The price of those calls made each so precious - $$. When Paul and I had a long-distance romance (he, in SE Iowa & Ames and I, in Sioux Falls), we only talked once a week and even then, it wasn't for long. Later, the companies began to offer rate deals - with lower rates on weekends and evenings. It all seems so long ago now.

Our plan with our provider US Cellular is an ongoing struggle. It's hard to believe that this has evolved from the same type of service that once made me excited to get a longer cord. They recently charged us a second time for sales tax for Paul's new phone. If we weren't the types to actually read invoices, they would have gotten away with it. We went into our local store to discuss this issue and got a credit. Gee thanks! We also discovered we could get more data than our present plan for less $. But the sales guy didn't share that until we pressed him on it. Such a struggle.

At least the operator didn't call me. Now if all those spammers would quit! I did just re-register Paul and my number on the Do Not Call registry.  You can do it too. It takes about a month to kick in and isn't perfect because some of them don't care about things like rules.