Number, Plea-Ase

Okay. Nostalgia tech. Not that I haven't told this b4.

When I was old enough to pick up the receiver on our buttonless, dial-less deskset telephone, an Operator answered, "Number, plea-ase."

I would tell them my buddy Tom's number, "Two Four Six (please)." (Talk about easy to remember! I have no idea what our number was, though.) And that grown-up adult woman would connect me to Tommy's house.

Voice activated!

Later, we got "dial" phones and it was a backward step, but I mastered it. Tom's number ended up being xxx-x246, which I can recite to this day.

Someday, telephoning will be easy again.