For Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop this week I chose:
“I picked up the phone and could not believe what I was hearing…”
Growing up in Panama we were pretty used to having crossed lines (mainly in rainy season.)
Occasionally you would pick up the phone and hear people talking.
I remember when we lived in Margarita when I was in junior high we had a bar tie into our line so that mom would have to pay their phone bill. (Don’t ask me how they did that one.) You’d pick up the phone and hear crazy conversations in Spanish. All the bochinche (A.K.A. gossip) except never about anyone we knew. I knew all about Sr. Someone’s affairs and how many bottles of seco the bar needed to order. My babysitter would yell at them to get off the line because there were children in this house and they had bad language. Nothing ever exciting enough to keep us listening (or maybe I just didn’t know those words yet.)
The strangest things happened during my senior year of high school during the build up to Operation Just Cause.
Our lines were tapped. You’d pick up to call a friend to see if they wanted to go to the beach and you’d hear “click, click.” We would poke fun at whomever was listening by saying “I promise, this is going to be a very boring conversation.” or “Do you really like this job?” Then you’d sometimes hear another “click, click.” It kept teenage phone calls short and sweet, which probably made my mother very happy.
I still am careful about what I say on the phone, not that I have any secrets to keep.
I always wonder who might be listening.
Now it’s your turn! Click on this button and link to Mama Kat’s workshop. It is every Thursday, but I am eternally late it seems and Friday is about as good as I get!
Oh! Also if you have an inkling, please check out my cooking blog to comment on what items are always in your pantry. I’m trying to be snoopy and see what everyone else considers “staples!” I’ll put a new topic every week (pantry, dry goods, baking, refrigerator, etc.)
As soon as a I get some free time I want to redo my blog and have tabs at the top to combine the three I have going now. If anyone has hints please let me know!
I really like this post; it's fascinating to me.
So interesting! My best friends Dad used to always tell us that the government was listening to us all the time : ). It made me conscious of what I was saying!
Oh that's creepy!! I would definitely be off the phone as soon as possible.
But I bet listening to conversations can be kind of interesting!
Interesting…
Growing up, we had "party" lines, and three or four families would be on the same line. Sometimes you'd have to wait for hours to use the phone, so of course, you're going to listen to the people talking! Once someone had knocked it off the hook in one of the houses and you could hear them having sex… 🙂 I remember my parent's whistling and banging things, trying to let the people know that their phone was off. I'm so glad we don't have that anymore!