{"id":8473,"date":"2015-03-06T01:50:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T01:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8473"},"modified":"2015-03-06T01:50:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T01:50:47","slug":"tough-to-sever-the-land-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8473","title":{"rendered":"Tough to sever the land line"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

This conversation was overheard today at my part-time job.<\/p>\n

Customer<\/strong>: Yes. I still have a home phone.<\/p>\n

Cashier<\/strong>: Oh, really?<\/p>\n

Customer<\/strong>: That’s right. My kids and grandkids don’t have a home phone, but I still have mine. I cannot get rid of it.<\/p>\n

I related instantly with the lady and her seemingly mild embarrassment at “admitting” she actually still had a land line, a telephone that she plugged into the wall, a home telephone.<\/p>\n

My wife and I have struggled for years with whether to cut our land line since cell phones became, well, such standard equipment for most folks.<\/p>\n

We’ve decided to keep it.<\/p>\n

Friends of mine have cut their land lines. Our sons operate exclusively with cell phones. They had no trouble cutting the line. They’re liberated 21st-century American males; one of them is married to an equally liberated modern female. Good for all of ’em.<\/p>\n

For us, we’ll retain our land line for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Some of you might ask: Why?<\/p>\n

The answer is complicated.<\/p>\n

It’s kind of a life line of sorts. I keep hearing TV and radio commercials telling us cell phones make lousy communication devices for 9-1-1 emergency phone calls. Perhaps it’s because that message comes from a land line provider, yes? Still, I get the logic in persuading someone that a land line is a more efficient method of reporting a medical or law enforcement emergency.<\/p>\n

Also, the land line and the phone book listing gives me a certain sense of belonging. That’s weird, I know. I am not entirely comfortable with people not knowing where to find us if they need to see us. I often\u00a0hear friends\u00a0say something like, “I’ve been thinking about you folks and wondering how you’re doing.” My answer? Well, we’re in the phone book; you still have a phone book, right? The older friends usually say “yes.” The younger ones? I know better than to ask, because I assume they don’t.<\/p>\n

We don’t know when, or even if, we’ll surrender the land line.<\/p>\n

The lady at work today spoke volumes to me — without ever knowing it — in that brief moment I eavesdropped on her conversation with the young cashier.<\/p>\n

Yes, my wife and I do\u00a0have cell phones. We use them regularly. I’m getting better — although not yet good<\/em> — at using the various features on my hot-shot phone. Same with my wife.<\/p>\n

But get rid of the land line? Not yet. Maybe not ever.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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This conversation was overheard today at my part-time job. Customer: Yes. I still have a home phone. Cashier: Oh, really? Customer: That’s right. My kids and grandkids don’t have a home phone, but I still have mine. I cannot get rid of it. I related instantly with the lady and her seemingly mild embarrassment at … Continue reading Tough to sever the land line<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[898,2728,4548],"class_list":["post-8473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-uncategorized","tag-cell-phones","tag-land-lines","tag-telecommunications-devices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}