today, during all my down time (yes, it's 3pm and i am still in my pj's), i had a memory come flooding back to me and i wanted to write it down.
growing up in my home there was a rule that you HAD to answer the phone "manwaring's, this is _______. (fill in the blank with your name)." and then we had to ask "may i tell them who is calling?" i don't know how my parents came up with this rule, or why. but, i am sure that when you called our house it was a pleasant experience. you never had to guess out of the eight kids which one you were talking to. i had friends that would call our house just hear us answer that way and then laugh about it. i also had friends that would ask to answer our phone if it rang while they were over so they could answer it by saying, "manwaring's, this is _____." oh, the memories!
anyway, i was thinking about this today because i miss telephone etiquette. most of the time people answer the phones simply by saying hello (me included) and you almost feel like you have to guess who it is and try to think of how you are going to phrase the next question..."is your mom home?", or..."is this _________?". then you have some people who just see that they missed a call from your number (not knowing who you are), they call you up and ask "did i miss a call from you? who is this?". by that point, you probably don't even remember who that number belonged to. strange!
this was probably sparked by the dozens of phone calls i had to make yesterday trying to find a substitute for nursery. maybe i will just start answering my cell phone, "ward's, this is becky."
does anyone else miss the good ole days of home telephones? maybe we were the only ones who had to answer our phone this way. enlighten me.
8 comments:
The sad thing is that we were at my mother and father-in-laws house when their home phone rang and Grace had no idea what was going on! It's so sad. She had never seen a phone other than a cell phone! She will never know of the days when you had to talk on the phone in the kitchen attached to a cord. And, if the phone wasn't for you and you answered it you would have to go find that person and tell them to go get the phone, you couldn't just bring it to them! And, did your mom ever tell you what to say if someone called for them and they weren't home? We were supposed to say "She's not available right now, may I take a message?" Most certainly never "she's not home" becuase it could be a kidnapper calling to see if we were home alone!! haha. I love the memories you just sparked... sorry for the essay of a comment!
I SOOOO remember "Manwarings, this is ...." Your mom still answers her cell, "This is Anna." And yep, I'm a land lover. (Hence the fact that I REFUSE to get rid of my land line. Just NOT gonna do it.)
I don't do it now of course, but my parents also made us say who it was when one of us answered our phone. BUT I do tell people that is me when I call them-just for the simple fact I don't like them to have to guess, but with caller id now I probably don't even need to do that
Oh you sparked tons of memories of Land Lines!! My dad used to answer..."Grand Central Station.." And my friends would actually hang up and call again. But we had the phone etiquette too. Great old times. We also had to go find the person, we couldn't SHOUT their name when the phone was for them. :) haha
Ben has told me this before and it totally cracks me up that you had to say your name(It reminds me of calling a store that has to say their logo)! We were told to answer "Murdock" but it only happened half the time.
I was the only one in my family (starting as a mid aged kid) who would answer the phone by saying, "Hello?"
Is Miki there?
"this is she.." I was such a nerdalicious!
I could have used your moms training! It DOES end the confusion when you just say it out...."_______(last name)... Miki speaking" or something like that.
Today, I usually just say, "hello?" and I love to guess who's on the other line.
I guess wrong a lot...but it's fun.
That's so funny. I guess we should try it at our house because Justin just called and when I answered the phone, he asked me if my mom was here. I told him no, because she had actually just left, and he said, "funny, Ellie, then where is she?"
I totally remember that! I think I may have even answered your parents' phone that way. And I remember their phone number-- isn't that funny?
I forget how much I love good telephone manners until I hear a kid with really good ones-- I'm always so impressed. We don't have a land line anymore either, so it's hard to imagine my kids answering my cell phone. But I guess I could get better-- I do say, "This is Elise" sometimes, but not always. Anyway, funny.
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