(TELE)PHONES

Recently, we needed to "upgrade" our cell phones and I got to thinking....(I know....can be dangerous.
When I was but a wee child, I can very clearly remember standing on a chair and talking into this thing hanging on the wall. The voice of the caller would come through a single piece hooked to the phone by a cord that you held to your ear. Who would think that in a few years, someone had the ingenuity to have the speaking end and listening end in one piece.
Phone numbers had 2 letters and 5 numbers. The letters were part of a word, for instance MU might stand for MUSEUM. In the days of the "piece" on the wall and the first ones that were "desk" phones, were dialed. One would stick their finger in a hole that had the letters and numbers in the various holes. After putting your finger in the hole, you would move it to the right until you couldn't move it any further...this was called "dialing".
The phone company owned the phone and "rented" it to the customer. Most were on a "party line"....which meant...you could pick up your phone and someone would be talking. You would have to wait until they were finished talking. It was also a way to pick up on the latest gossip in the neighborhood..but if you "listened in"...you had to be so quiet..so they didn't suspect.
I remember the phones that you had to "crank" to "ring up" the operator. You would tell her the number you wanted to call. Operators would be real busy at times and they always knew who called who. Lily Tomlin does such a great imitation of an "operator".
As phones were upgraded, they became more automated and human operators became extinct. You could dial a number and it would automatically ring the phone that you called. Busy signals and private lines became new "buzz" words.
Then lawsuits emerged and we were then required to purchase our phones..no more rental fees. The phone companies did a major restructuring. We purchased the two "princess" phones that we had plus the one hanging on the wall in the kitchen...they were all "dialers"...and then I was put on a yearbook committe for a church with a few hundred members and I had to call many to set up photo appointments. That job convinced me to purchase a pushbutton phone. No more sore dialing fingers. About this time the letters all turned into numbers and area codes became the norm.
Then call waiting and caller id surfaced. And then came the Bag Phones....lol......which now are about as big as a wallet....and aren't plugged into anything except a charger occasionally. Why who would believe they take pictures...lol....and even surf the Internet.........

THE BEGINNINGS.....

Recently I have made "connections" on Facebook.....that "blow me away". First, I saw "Cathy" on someone else's friends list...so I asked to be her friend...and then I saw "Sharon" on someone else's list...and then I got to thinking. When I was employed by the private Christian School where I worked for 13 years....I started their "formal" technology program....with 14 Apple IIe computers. That was it. We obtained software money by recycling soda cans...I can't begin to tell you how many bags of those I drug home and to the recycling center...what a smelly, messy job. One year, if we had $x in register receipts from a grocery store we could obtain an IBM PS 2 computer... guess who added up all those receipts....it was thousands of dollars...and we obtained one for each "branch" of which there were two. A few years later, we moved into a brand new elementary building, where I designed the computer room/office for effective learning. The networking wiring was installed and I had the room wired with 2 circuits which I could control. When I left there 13 years from when I started...we had terrific networked software, there was a budget for technology, there was a curriculum in place and I left with a lab full of new Dell computers hooked to a network printer, puters in every elementary classroom...in fact there were over 100 puters that I was responsible for teching...in addition to the lab and a full schedule of classes. A "tech corp" was established. We also established a "yearbook club" of 6th grade students who learned the art of effective photography and worked to put the school yearbook together.

Cathy...oh my, she will have many stars in her heavenly crown. She was a nurse and insisted that she donate her services to the school K-12 in 3 locations. There was no pay budgeted for such a position. She worked tirelessly and considered this her "mission". Now....there is a full time paid nurse at the elementary level and another for the high school level.

Sharon....what a saint...She set up the extended care program for before school and after school. She was totally invested in each child in the program and hired a terrific giving staff and was a treasure trove of ideas to keep the children busy. The endless early and late hours....no one really knew. She also set up the Camp Winsome program from scratch...which is a flourishing activing every summer now. I can remember when she was "throwing" around names for the Camp.
Sharon's mother, Rosemary, started the Art program after teaching Kindergarten for several years. She could do anything. All the students, young and older...loved her.

What a legacy....

When I walk into the school now...there are computers everywhere and they are just taken for granted....and I think...if they only knew...but in today's society...who cares.... The nurses office is well equipped. There is art everywhere.....and extended care flourishes as well as Camp Winsome.

Way to go Sharon and Cathy...your legacy lives on....and you can be so proud!! I am so glad I have found both of you as we were a "team".....and "remember when".