Landline

It was the end of an era this week when Mum ironically rang on her old school phone to tell me her landline of 49 years was being disconnected. 

In my opinion the phone company is surely taking the mickey out of an elderly lady by charging her eighty bucks every three months to rent the land line. Mum does not use broadband or even Wi-Fi.

So, it is a case of sayonara to our saviour the phone line that was 33433440.  How many numbers can you still rattle off the top of your head from back in the day? I mean many of us know Jenny’s number from that song 867-5309 by Tommy Tutone. It is incredible how many of us can still recall landlines. They were a huge part of our fabric of growing up. 33433440 clocked up some serious frequent flyer points over the decades.

I would ring my grandma most nights at six pm to check in and check on her. I still miss that nightly call. All of us grandkids always rang her to cheer on Queensland just before the game on State of Origin nights.

Then as I got older at school, friends would ring on 33433440 to discuss the important events of the day such as the fact George Georgiou wrote a love note to Rebecca Smith. Juicy stuff that my days revolved around.

And then when I was at university my first boyfriend would have to call and get past Mum to speak to me as I sat on the floor with the phone cord twisted so far away and around the corner in the hope no one could hear my conversation.

When my sister went overseas we all huddled around that phone when she called us all the way from Egypt and we thought she was the fanciest person in the universe.

When I finally went overseas the phone was my hero to reach my real hero: my mother! My bestie and I and all our clueless bravado went to Las Vegas for the first time in our twenties and we had everything we owned stolen including our passports and money. I rang sobbing and afraid from the Vegas police station and reversed the phone charges to good old Mum.

When my husband proposed we rang together to tell Mum the good news and to hear her reply with “Are you sure? My daughter has a lot of debt”. Thanks Mum!

And a fun fact my kids think is hilarious  – we used to ring that land line and make an appointment for it to ring and wake us up so we wouldn’t miss an early flight or important meeting. Mind blowing, I know!

Simpler times when we did not have to charge a phone and did not have it next to us while we slept. Vale 33433440. You were so good to us.