Collect Calls

I have been out of town since Wednesday but have talked to my family at home every day. Years ago, when you went away, it was too expensive to make out of town calls. People wrote postcards letting their families know how they were doing. A few months ago, I found a few of them from my grandmother. She and my grandfather were in Miami for two weeks and she wrote home every day. I vividly remember when I traveled on vacation with my friends in the 70's, the method of communication we all used. It was the collect call. You called the operator and she rang your phone at home. The trick was that you asked for yourself and the person on the other end of the line would then know that you were safely at your destination. You tried to get as much information across as possible. The conversation went something like this:

• Operator: I have a collect call from Shelby.
• Parents:Shelby isn't home now.
• Me:Shelby must be in Florida.
• Parents:I think she is at the hotel.
• Me: She must be and I bet it is sunny and warm there.
• Parents:I will tell her you called.

That was the code for, "I am here, in the hotel and the weather is beautiful".

Now, we text, call, Skype, Facetime and email. No one is really on vacation.