So, today I decided I would talk about telephones. They're pretty amazing, I mean you can now talk to someone across the world in "real time" without leaving your living room, or you can walk around the house and chat to them while doing laundry. Or you can call your parents while they're in the house and you simply can't find them; actually, the only time I've ever called home from home was for a really good reason. Now I guess I have to tell that story, eh?
Alright, so in the old house (before we moved obviously) I had about a quarter of the basement to myself as my bedroom and the door had a lock on it. Standard, right? Well, no. The doorknob had been put on wrong and the lock was actually on the outside of the bedroom, so you could lock the door from the outside. Since the doorknobs didn't match, once the door was locked it couldn't be unlocked from the inside; there wasn't a keyhole or even a mechanism to unlock the door, and I wasn't in the habit of keeping screwdrivers in my room at that point (after this happened I started keeping one in my skate bag, haha). Normally the stupidly locking door wasn't a problem, but on this particular summer day it apparently was. My little sister had been playing with the door and inadvertently locked the door. Then she proceeded to come into my room with me and shut the door; I bet you can see where this is going.
So we're in my room goofing off or whatever and I go to leave. And the door's locked. So of course I spend a while freaking out, then my eyes fall on my lamp/telephone (honestly it's the best combo-it's a lava lamp, but the base is a telephone. Not cordless or anything, but I love it. And it's blue!). My bedroom windows were open and I could hear music playing out back, but I knew that I couldn't yell loud enough to be heard and because the screens on my windows were older and I was weak (minded) I couldn't get them out to crawl out the windows (which were on ground level). So I called the house number! Well, eventually my parents picked up, came, and let us out, but not until they'd soundly told me off for not picking up the phone!! Telephones-they're wonderful, and they're weird.
The actual patent for the first telephone, as we all know, went to Alexander Graham Bell. However, there are several controversies surrounding who invented the telephone first. Which I'm not going to get into either; I just found it sort of interesting that there seems to still be so much controversy over it. Even though many people have moved onto cell phones (I myself use my cell far more than my home phone; no one calls my house anymore if they want to talk to me), I still love my original telephones. Those great huge ones with multiple pieces that were mounted on the wall in the early 1900s? Those were gorgeous pieces of work, but I'm not sure I could deal with the open lines system they used to have in some communities; nope, I like my privacy on the phone.
And the phones with the dials? Those are pretty awesome too; actually, we have one in our house. The power goes out a lot here so it really pays to have a land line instead of just cordless phones (which we all know are essentially useless when the power is out), and so my Dad brought this huge old dial phone back from his parents place last month when he, Bug and Mom helped Grandma move. This thing's great. It's black, very square, has the old dial on the front, and even has the classic ring; I love it (probably because it's so ancient looking, haha).
Telephones; they're great, and they help to keep us all together. Cell phones may be more convenient now, but they wouldn't be here without their precursors. Long live telephones! But now it's time for me to say goodnight; I have 5 minutes to upload this before I miss my 'deadline'. Until Monday then. Goodnight!!
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