Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: PHONE (11/10/16)
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TITLE: A Lesson | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry Bovinet
11/17/16 -
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“Papa, what’s that?” The five-year served as an unending fountain of questions.
“A telephone.”
“That’s not a phone, Papa. Really, what is it?”
David laughed and understood his grandson’s disbelief. The antique telephone attached to the wall looked like it came out of Mayberry on which Sheriff Andy Taylor would ask Sarah the operator to make a call for him.
“Where did you buy it?” Adam queried.
“My grandparents actually used it. Let me show you how it works.”
David took the earpiece from its holder and talked into the funnel that extended from the base of the antique.
“Still not sure about how you use it.” Adam quizzed, “then where would you play video games on it?”
“You can’t. You could only talk on it.”
“No video games? Why use it then? How did you carry it around?” Adam continued his barrage of questions.
“It stayed on the wall,” David laughed. “Anytime the phone rang, you needed to stand here and talk.”
“You couldn’t move around? That stinks. Does it still work?”
“No, it needs a phone line.”
“What’s a phone line?”
“It’s like a cord that plugs it in.”
“Of course, everyone needs to plug in their phones or they will run out of battery.”
David thought better than to try to explain landline telephones as Adam’s parents only used cellphones.
“Where are the buttons to make a call?”
“No buttons. You needed to go through the operator.” David tried to describe the process of making an operator assisted call, but his grandson’s expression made it clear his attempt had not succeeded.
David braced for another question.
“Then you can’t text on it?”
“Only talking on it, Adam, only talking.”
“Can’t see why anyone would ever use that dumb phone.” He quickly added, “that’s not a bad word, Papa, it just means it’s not a smartphone.”
“I understand, Buddy,” David chuckled.
“I wouldn’t have wanted to live back then. You couldn’t stay in touch with anyone!”
“Oh, people back then usually talked to family and friends.”
“Why would you talk to someone when you can just text them?”
“We enjoyed talking to people or meeting them face-to-face so we could really get to know them.”
“But you can do that on Instagram.”
“What do you know about Instagram?”
“My sister spends all day on it with all her friends. When she gets together with them, they just sit around and stare at their phones.”
“Do they ever talk to each other?”
“Not really. Unless they show each other selfies someone has posted.”
“I like to talk to my friends on the phone.”
Adam responded with a sigh, “Papa, you will never learn. Just text them!”
“Would you rather talk to me on the phone or text me?”
This seemed to make an impression on Adam’s young mind. “Okay, I will keep talking to you.”
“What about God? Would you rather talk to him or text Him?”
“Well, you really can’t text God, but I do like to talk to Him,” Adam answered thoughtfully.
“And He likes hearing from you when you pray. Much better than texting Him.”
They shared a laugh and a look that further bonded them.
“Now can we play some video games?” Adam shifted gears as David smiled widely.
“I have a better idea. Beat you in pinball. Baseball or zoo?” Papa responded with a challenge he knew would egg on his competitive grandson.
“Dream on, Papa! After that, I will show you how to text. But you will still need to talk to God!”
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