Cell phones!!

I do not like cell phones because people answer them … when they shouldn’t. There I am listening to a lecture, enjoying an activity or just visiting. The phone rings and the person with me, like Pavlov’s dog, responds. They pull out their phone, open it and begin a conversation.
The worst offense occurred the evening the leader of a group activity heard their cell phone. They pulled it out, opened it, looked at the caller ID, said “I have to take this call,” and with no word of explanation walked away. The group waited, stunned to silence for a minute, until someone took over the meeting. The original leader never did return.
If I take the time to show up to talk with someone, and our dialogue comes to a screeching halt because another person who is not there is calling, I feel unwanted.
I do not like cell phones because strangers who answer cell phones on a plane or waiting room and then proceed to hold lengthy, detailed conversations force me to be an unwilling eavesdropper.
I do not like cell phones because people do not answer them.
Oh sure, they have warm, wonderful, informative messages asking me to leave a message, but they do not even acknowledge my call with a text message.
All those phones everywhere and my calls go unanswered in so many ways. It’s not like I call every 10 minutes or even every 10 days, but once in a while when I do call, it would be a pleasant change if the recipient would at least text a response, or send me an e-mail via their multi-purpose phone.
Before phones had caller ID and answering services, if the recipient was anywhere in the vicinity of the phone, most calls were answered – if only to stop that infernal bell from ringing. In fact, during the years of party lines, if you didn’t answer your phone, someone else might, if only to say, “She’s not home, she went to town today.”
Party lines meant phone connections were shared … shared to the extent that those on the party line had to listen to the number and pattern of rings to see if the phone was ringing for them. For the phone- addicted souls of that era, any call on the party line gave them a reason to pick up the receiver at their house and listen while other folks conversed. It was a form of entertainment and news gathering. The clicks on the line after taking a call announced the number of willful listeners in the audience. For that reason alone, most chose a private line as soon as possible.
Before the advent of radio and TV shows, some ingenious person actually initiated a phone call story time each week. When the phone rang at 4 p.m. on Saturday, kids picked up the phone to listen to their phone story.
Now that kind of phone call I would enjoy. There are, after all, times that I do like phones.
I like having a cell phone handy when I am stuck in traffic behind a major wreck. I know we will arrive much later than anticipated. It saves a lot of wonder and worry.
I like having cell phones with texting capabilities when I just have one question that will require a one or two word answer.
Because we only use our cell phones infrequently, I often forget and leave mine behind in the car. That’s where the phone revealed itself the day my supervisor called to tell me that my assignment had changed after I had left the office parking lot.
I liked having a cell phone following our recent long trip. On the way home, we could call up family members and tell them about the trip and assure them we would soon be accessible again on our land line.
Okay, overall, I guess I like the convenience of cell phones, I just wish folks would, “ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee” and answer when I call.