Past
When my daughter was very young, probably about three years old, she managed to contact an airline pilot on the living room phone. I was making the bed, and she was around the corner, playing with her toys…or so I thought. As I made the bed, I heard her talking, and at first I believed she was speaking to one of her stuffed animals. However, when I went around the corner to check on her, I found her on the phone. She gave me a bright, sunny smile as she replied to a voice on the other end. I took the phone away from her and asked, “Who is this?” A very nice gentleman gave me his name and informed me that she had called him! I had a brief conversation with him in which he told me that he was just returning from a flight and was unpacking as his phone rang. I have no idea how my daughter accomplished this feat. This was not a mobile phone with a locking feature. We still had land lines and the phone had push buttons. She had no way of knowing the prefixes. I will say, however, that because we lived in a large city we had many, many prefixes and evidently she just randomly happened to hit one of the right ones. I was simply lucky that she hadn’t made a long distance call. Back then, you had to pay long distance charges. Something like that would not have happened when I was her age. Our phone had neither a dial nor buttons…the operator would answer and say “number, please!” When I was young, all the prefixes were names instead of numbers. Our phone was, for example, Cherry 3165. We also had party lines (perhaps I should explain about those as anyone less than 50 years of age may have no idea what a party line is—simply a phone line shared by more than one individual, usually several families). People whom you didn’t even know would scream at you to get off the phone and you would scream back, “Well, then, hurry up!”
Present
Grudgingly, I will admit that there are some benefits to mobile phones. Okay, at least one! I don’t have to come home and wonder if I missed a call. I have my phone with me. However, I am terrified of losing my phone (you can’t do that with a land line). I also have earned the condemnation of my grandson for having the temerity to drop my phone and shatter the glass (or whatever covers the front of them*
Daughter’s note – she has dropped it more than once!). A good portion of the time, I am in the living room and my phone is in the bedroom or vice versa, and I don’t hear it ringing (no matter how loud I turn the ringtone up). I have, at times, had to walk out in the yard to get better reception (sometimes I get no reception at all). I have pleaded for a land line, but they are difficult to come by. I fear it is a passing way of life. Besides, truthfully, people don’t spend a lot of time on the phone anyway. If I want to tell someone about the happenings of my day, I am liable to get “shoot me a text on that, why don’t you?” No, I don’t think I will bother. Somehow, these fingers don’t work as well on that miniscule keyboard. I hate texting. Actually, I am considering abandoning the phone altogether. Perhaps if I stay incommunicado long enough, folks might actually come around and check on me…gosh, face to face communication. What a thought! Jesus said, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even
as the Father said unto me, so I speak.” (John 12: 49-50). Jesus knew the value of face-to-face communication--it is the substance of relationship.
Recipe
Eleanor’s Coconut Dessert
Crust: 1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup of flour
2 tbsps. of sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
In a mixer, mix the flour, butter and sugar. Add the pecans. Pat into a greased 9x13” pan. Bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cool.
1st layer: 1 – 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese
1 cup of powdered sugar
4 oz. of Cool Whip
Mix these ingredients together and spoon over the cooled crust.
2nd layer: 2 pkgs. Instant coconut cream pudding mixed with 3 cups of milk. Pour over the 1st layer.
3rd layer: Use another 4 oz. of Cool Whip on top plus 1 can of toasted coconut flakes sprinkled on top of the Cool Whip.
This is one of those really, really rich, to-die-for desserts. A sweet lady in our Church gave this recipe to me when I cried, pleaded, and begged for it.
When my daughter was very young, probably about three years old, she managed to contact an airline pilot on the living room phone. I was making the bed, and she was around the corner, playing with her toys…or so I thought. As I made the bed, I heard her talking, and at first I believed she was speaking to one of her stuffed animals. However, when I went around the corner to check on her, I found her on the phone. She gave me a bright, sunny smile as she replied to a voice on the other end. I took the phone away from her and asked, “Who is this?” A very nice gentleman gave me his name and informed me that she had called him! I had a brief conversation with him in which he told me that he was just returning from a flight and was unpacking as his phone rang. I have no idea how my daughter accomplished this feat. This was not a mobile phone with a locking feature. We still had land lines and the phone had push buttons. She had no way of knowing the prefixes. I will say, however, that because we lived in a large city we had many, many prefixes and evidently she just randomly happened to hit one of the right ones. I was simply lucky that she hadn’t made a long distance call. Back then, you had to pay long distance charges. Something like that would not have happened when I was her age. Our phone had neither a dial nor buttons…the operator would answer and say “number, please!” When I was young, all the prefixes were names instead of numbers. Our phone was, for example, Cherry 3165. We also had party lines (perhaps I should explain about those as anyone less than 50 years of age may have no idea what a party line is—simply a phone line shared by more than one individual, usually several families). People whom you didn’t even know would scream at you to get off the phone and you would scream back, “Well, then, hurry up!”
Present
Grudgingly, I will admit that there are some benefits to mobile phones. Okay, at least one! I don’t have to come home and wonder if I missed a call. I have my phone with me. However, I am terrified of losing my phone (you can’t do that with a land line). I also have earned the condemnation of my grandson for having the temerity to drop my phone and shatter the glass (or whatever covers the front of them*
Daughter’s note – she has dropped it more than once!). A good portion of the time, I am in the living room and my phone is in the bedroom or vice versa, and I don’t hear it ringing (no matter how loud I turn the ringtone up). I have, at times, had to walk out in the yard to get better reception (sometimes I get no reception at all). I have pleaded for a land line, but they are difficult to come by. I fear it is a passing way of life. Besides, truthfully, people don’t spend a lot of time on the phone anyway. If I want to tell someone about the happenings of my day, I am liable to get “shoot me a text on that, why don’t you?” No, I don’t think I will bother. Somehow, these fingers don’t work as well on that miniscule keyboard. I hate texting. Actually, I am considering abandoning the phone altogether. Perhaps if I stay incommunicado long enough, folks might actually come around and check on me…gosh, face to face communication. What a thought! Jesus said, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even
as the Father said unto me, so I speak.” (John 12: 49-50). Jesus knew the value of face-to-face communication--it is the substance of relationship.
Recipe
Eleanor’s Coconut Dessert
Crust: 1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup of flour
2 tbsps. of sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
In a mixer, mix the flour, butter and sugar. Add the pecans. Pat into a greased 9x13” pan. Bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cool.
1st layer: 1 – 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese
1 cup of powdered sugar
4 oz. of Cool Whip
Mix these ingredients together and spoon over the cooled crust.
2nd layer: 2 pkgs. Instant coconut cream pudding mixed with 3 cups of milk. Pour over the 1st layer.
3rd layer: Use another 4 oz. of Cool Whip on top plus 1 can of toasted coconut flakes sprinkled on top of the Cool Whip.
This is one of those really, really rich, to-die-for desserts. A sweet lady in our Church gave this recipe to me when I cried, pleaded, and begged for it.