RED, REAL TELEPHONES

A call from the past to the present
Originally uploaded by ßlϋeωãvε.

Classic cars and motorcycles remind us that change is perhaps the only constant in life. Material things change. So do we as individuals.

Some things, like cars, motorcycles, and even telephones, change through the evolution of engineering and technology. Other things, like Pet Rocks and Lead Paint, disappear because their social utility is outweighed by stupidity or toxicity. And so it goes.

It is in remembering those now-gone things, nonetheless, that we can sometimes better perceive the history of changes in ourselves.

Reflecting on the evolution of things for a moment, I can’t recall the last time I used a rotary dial telephone or even saw a telephone booth. Yet they are still in use all over the world.

It’s said that some homes in this big world of ours actually have Red Burgundy Rotary Dial Telephones still in use. That’s very cool.

Around here you can’t find rotary phones or telephone booths at all. Our telephones are mostly miniature, multi-function, music-playing digital cellular devices. And as for land lines, well, they're vanishing like bedevilled dinosaurs in an ice age.

Maybe we should all go try that Burgundy Bomb just to remember how good it feels to grasp and talk on one of those big handled barbells. Frankly, when you use one of those at least you really know you’re “on the phone.”

And no one ever drove around town talking on a real phone while thinking they were safely operating a car either.