Barbara Ellington, Senior Gleaner WriterTHE OTHER night I was on my way to the country with a friend when his cell phone rang. He answered and quickly hung up, saying he didn't recognise the voice of the caller who just said, "Call me back".
He went on to tell me that he was tired of getting calls from friends and relatives who claimed they were out of credit and therefore wanted him to call them back. Since I was getting a little tired of hearing people complain about this very thing, I decided to vent.
I said to him, "Don't call back, if it's that important they will call again." I also repeated my oft spouted belief that the worst, or most urgent, thing someone could call to tell me is that someone has died and since I cannot raise the dead, even that can wait. Plus, if someone is calling me, they are the one who wants to speak to me so it stands to reason that they should spend the money, not me.
My late father used to tell us, don't call people or visit their yard more than they do because you don't want to hear from them more than they do you and you don't live in a hole so they can visit you too.
Since the birth of that little phrase "call me back",
I have encountered only one person who has ever called with the annoying request and I think that person got the message when, after not ever calling back, the individual had the nerve to ask why. I explained: "if you are going to keep three phones, you should be able to keep their little greedy stomachs filled."
REACH OUT AND TOUCH
Isn't it annoying to have so many people telling you they have no credit? And have you noticed that you will not hear from someone for a long time and when you give them a call, they say: I was just going to call you", or they will finally call after being out of touch with the accusation, "You can't call?" Or, better yet, they will claim being too busy to call but suddenly find time to draw long bench when you call.
I stopped my dear old aunt dead in her tracks some years ago because after not calling her for a long time, I finally did and she jumped straight down my throat saying, "Mercy, you stay bad eeh? You can't call me? "
I replied, "Well, I'm calling you now and my number is the same so if you wanted to hear from me that badly, you could call me too."
She didn't exactly call me rude but my remark made the rounds locally and overseas and I'm sure that were I 10, I would have received the beating she gave me back then, for a similar smart remark.
Seriously though, this telephone/keeping in touch thing is interesting. I once had a friend whose phone had been disconnected when she was out of a job. She discovered in six weeks who her real friends were because only three of us from the lot called her regularly. She told me that she found out she was the one always doing the calling and that she would stop when her phone was reconnected. It isn't surprising that her bill has been drastically cut since she stopped calling people who do not call her.
As for my travelling companion, the person who called him, did call back when she did not hear from him but with a request for him to buy a phone card and call her with the numbers so she could call him.
Wow!
I resent the way the proliferation of cell phones is forcing me to keep in touch. I had to devise a way to get rid of wrong number calls on my voice mail.
RINGING UP BAD MANNERS
With work pressure and deadlines to meet, the cell phone is everyone's new best friend. On the other hand, it has brought out the bad mannered and insensitive side of many of us. For example:
* I resent being half naked and vulnerable on the examining table and my doctor stops to take a call on his cell.
* I resent being on the land line to someone who stops to answer the cell and forgets all about me.
* I resent being put on hold when I call someone long distance.
* I resent being in the theatre to watch a play and hear people calling to conduct the following conversation: "Weh yuh deh now. Me eena de teatah, de show a gwaan, mi wi call yuh wen ie dun."
Whereupon I snap, "tun ie off now dis is a silent zone!"
* I resent not being able to mourn a friend in peace because cell phones are ringing during a funeral service.
* I resent sitting down to interview someone whose cell phone keeps going off, thus eliciting the comment, "where were we again?" I usually have the decency to turn mine off or the good manners to say, I'm leaving it on, if I'm expecting an urgent call.
* But most of all, I resent seeing JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transit Company) and emergency vehicle drivers with one hand on the wheel while they have people's lives in their care.
My next pet peeve is those damned annoying chain messages in my email. I never open them so please get me off those mailing lists.
But that's for another time.
Merry Christmas.
