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Text version of the episode:
Episode 15 The House Phone
For all of my childhood and most of my adult life, my parents have always had a house phone. We never had cable when I was growing up, but we always had a home phone line and it was always the same number – 735, 8109. Even now, just saying that combination “seven three five eight one oh nine” takes me back. One of the best parts about having a house phone was being able to change the greeting on the answering machine – I wish I had used it way more than I did. I’m pretty sure when we were younger my parents had us do the cute little “You’ve reached the Todd family, we’re not home right now. Leave a message and we’ll get back to you!” In our little kid voices, but then when we got older I feel like my mom or my dad just replaced it with something simple.
When I moved out after high school and my parents had their own cell phones (which still have the same numbers after all these years too), I would call home to talk to my mom and she would always let the phone ring all the way to the answering machine and make me say “Hey Mom, its me” before she would answer, like an early version of caller ID.
I think eventually it got too expensive to pay for a phone line that only ever rang for telemarketers anymore, and my parents got rid of it, like everyone else these days.