Party lines, rotary dials, local operators, four digit dialing, leased phones - all phrases and words that seem woefully ancient in our modern day and age of cell phones, pages, internet phone service, call waiting and blue tooth wireless.But even I remember some of those now archaic words.

Growing up, we shared the phone line with our neighbors across the road.  We would never hear their rings and they would never hear ours, but we always knew when they were on the phone, usually, you could hear the unexplained noises and the unexplained breathing on the line.

It really crimped down on the amount of gossip that could be shared over the phone lines.  For a teenage boy, somehow it just ruined the mood when you were talking to a girl and all of a sudden that “old man breathing” noise come across the phone line.  “We must have a bad connection, lets talk tomorrow at school,” came the explanation.

Then there was the rotary phone.  I think we had the last rotary phone that I can remember - and a beautiful “harvest gold” phone that hung on the wall in the kitchen at that (nothing says modern age like a 1970’s harvest gold phone…but don’t worry, it matched the refridgerator).  “Witch cha-cha-cha-cha-cha, Witch-cha-cha-cha, Witch-cha-cha-cha, Witch-cha-ca-ca-cha-cha, Witch-cha, Witch-cha, Witch-ca” the phone would rattle as you dialed (that was my grandmother’s number by the way).

Then there was the answering machines.  “I’m never going to have one of those #$%# machines my Dad would exclaim every time the subject was breached.”

Making an outgoing call, an answering machine could ruin a day, “Going to call Lori,” I’d say.  Ringing, ringing, ringing…”Hi, we aren’t home right now..”

I’d hang up the phone “#$%#% answering machine.” I’d say.

“Don’t swear!” Mom would say.

“Yeah, even if you get a #$%# answering machine.” Dad would follow up.

The technology also made the rules pretty simple growing up - make it quick, make it worthwhile, and don’t say anything you wouldn’t want the neighbors to hear.

Their were two exceptions to those rules, 1) Grandma called every day at nine o’clock in the morning and she would get as much time as she and Mom wanted 2) Mom would call and talk to her sister once a month and regardless if it was fifteen or fifty minutes - both of those times were sacred.

Today, Dad still has the “land-line” but also a cell phone.  I’ve got a personal cell phone and a work issued Blackberry to allow me to get email at any time of day and night.  All of my brothers have a stack of phones and land lines to keep them connected.  Each of them has voicemail and text messaging and for the old lines the answering machines.

But each age has its scourge.

“##$%# telemarketers…”