Hello?

Another exciting and memorable Christmas gift was my very own phone line. I was eleven years old and apparently my need to talk on the phone was a major burden for the rest of the family. I talked on the phone a LOT. My friends Kinsey Mitchell and Erin Brothers walked home from school with me every day. As soon as they'd get home, the phone calling would begin - as if we hadn't had ample talking time at school or on the way to and from. One night as my family knelt down for family prayer, my dad called on me to say the prayer. I bowed my head and said, "Hello?" without really thinking. Of course, the reverence of the moment was killed and everyone was laughing. My parents seized the opportunity to let me know the obvious - I was not on the phone. I was made fun of for this for many, many years.

Some of my friends have heard this goofy story, so I apologize for the repeat. It sets the stage well for how crazy excited I was about this gift. I distinctively recall opening a large box to find a small piece of paper in it that read 898-0819. So so so cool. I thought I must be the coolest girl in the sixth grade for sure. I called my friends as soon as I could, on my new line of course, to give them my new phone number.

That 1980s Swatch phone is pretty cool, huh? That would have looked AWESOME (or should I say radical?) with my rainbow colored Swatch watch. Rainbows were cool then, too.