Mid-Pandemic, Everybody’s Doing It
Talking on the Phone is Cool Again
Hello?
It was my best friend calling. Another BFF called late-afternoon. Two in one day. Then another best friend called the following day. My hairdresser even called me the other night.
Notice I’m saying “called,” not “texted” or “emailed.” They actually did what we used to do before the advent of cell phones or computers: Talk on the phone.
They called to see how I am. What am I doing? How’s work going? What are the kids up to? How is your 90-year-old mother? The conversation was a general schmooze for ten or so minutes to distract from everything we are all facing: a Coronavirus pandemic that brings us to ten-months-plus in near-lock-down-panic and more than 410,000 souls passed.
Speaking with friends in real-time is a great diversion to all of this. I am reminded of when I was 13-years old and my best friend Leslie and I walked home from school. We yakked and yakked for the thirty minutes it took to walk home, then after saying good bye and a quick after-school snack, we jumped onto the telephone (which I brought out onto the roof lest someone was listening in.) We yakked for another two hours.
