Ring-A-Ding-Ding

We didn’t have a telephone when I was growing up. While visiting friends and relatives, I was able to learn the protocols such as party lines, long distance, Information, and generally how you should conduct yourself. My small hometown, Augusta, Kansas, was probably considered as having a very small telephone system. Reading the newspaper ads, I learned that McDuffee’s Service Station was telephone number “2.” The Augusta Theater, I believe, was number “6,” and Howard Motors was “66.” My great uncle, Dave Peebler, was “413.” That should give you an idea of the system size. We had good neighbors who would take calls for Mom or Dad and come over to the house and get them.

When I was 10 or 12, the Gardner family had rented the house to the south of us. Billy and I played together every day and when we heard that you couple make a phone line with a couple of tin cans and some string or cord, we couldn’t wait to try it out. There was only about 20 feet between houses, and our bedrooms faced each other, so it was simple to string a line across. We had quite a time with our telephone. I’m not sure if the thing worked, or if we just heard each other shouting back and forth.

In March of 1957, I enlisted in the Navy. Three months later, coming home for leave after boot camp, I learned that my folks had both a telephone and a television. I guess that once you are rid of the person eating you out of house and home, you can afford the finer things.

In the 1970’s or 1980’s, remote telephones were designed and became popular. We had one. I was working for a company that designed and sold remote phones. Our company’s receptionist sat just inside the front door. A tech would place a base station on a small table near the girl. The remote phones were guaranteed to work up to 200 feet. It so happened that there was a telephone pole exactly 200 feet from the front door. The technician would lean on the telephone pole, and he and the receptionist would take turns making and receiving calls to see if the phone worked. It always looked like they were killing time, but they were actually doing a final test.

I don’t have a cell phone because I can’t see the apps on an Iphone. I have macular degeneration and am legally blind. I should explain that I have enough vision that with the help of a digital magnifier, I can handwrite these stories, and my daughter, Terri, types them and posts them to the blog. Cell phones connect you to the world. They can keep you in touch with your friends and relatives. When my wife, Pat, is talking on the phone and laughing, I know that everyone is all right.

I’m ending the way I started- with no phone. That’s the way it goes.

Dave Thomas

1/15/2026