Over the course of the history of this blog, the subject has been telephones on a number of occasions. The telephone is an interesting topic, and like a lot (most) things, it\u2019s made tremendous progress, technologically, over the years. It\u2019s hard to remember when a telephone wasn\u2019t taken for granted, but it really hasn\u2019t bee that long ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we first arrived in Manila, in the Philippines \u2014 in 1972, we moved into an apartment in the Carmen-Dewey apartment building on Roxas Boulevard \u2014 located right on Manila Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous tenants had taken the telephone with them when they moved. Because I traveled a lot, it was important for Claire to have access to a phone \u2014 obviously there was no such thing as an \u201cInternet\u201d or cell phone in those days.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1972, a phone was considered a luxury item in Manila. There was a long waiting list of people waiting for phones to be installed. The embassy pulled some strings and it was a only a few days after moving in that the telephone company showed up at our apartment. The previous residents evidently had the phone in the living room \u2014 there was a phone \u201cpigtail\u201d about five or six inches long coming out of the baseboard in that room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Claire told the phone installer that she wanted the phone in the bedroom \u2014 with me traveling, the bedroom location just made more sense. Claire went on about her business and left the installer to do his work. Shortly, he announced that the phone was connected and everything worked fine. When she checked, she found the phone had been attached to short piece of wire coming out of the baseboard \u2014 about six inches from the wall. It couldn\u2019t even be put on a table, it had to sit on the floor. Claire once again explained that she wanted the phone in the bedroom \u2014 on a nightstand next to the bed. The phone installer insisted that it was much better where he had installed it (on the floor in the living room.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, if you know Claire, there was a long (interesting?) discussion about where the phone should go. The phone installer\u2019s best arguments couldn\u2019t convince Claire that the living room floor location was \u201cbetter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turned out that the real problem was that the phone company didn\u2019t have any wire. I\u2019ll repeat that \u2014 the phone company didn\u2019t have any wire. Claire got in touch with me and I brought a roll of wire from the embassy and the installer gladly installed the phone in the bedroom \u2014 on the table. I let the phone guy keep the extra wire and everyone was happy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thinking back over the years, if I made a list of the things I\u2019ve taken for granted, it would be a long list \u2014 and include telephone wire.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the course of the history of this blog, the subject has been telephones on a number of occasions. The telephone is an interesting topic, and like a lot (most) things, it\u2019s made tremendous progress, technologically, over the years. It\u2019s … Continue reading