Community Chat

[shoptilyadropagain]

About 20 to 30 minutes is all I can take.  Not a phone talker and never have been.

[zitawins]

I may be alone in this, but I detest talking for long periods on the phone. Some of its due to my low hearing, but I get antsy if someone goes on and on. Like my sister-in-law who loves the phone, despite knowing that I hate it. I have to find excuses to get off after an hour or I'll go bonkers.

[mamaslittlepotato]

I’m not much of a phone person unless there’s something important to talk about. Otherwise, 15-20 mins is enough, but texting is better......As for your brother-in-law and his brother, they must enjoy each other‘s conversations even if they’re arguing over politics, otherwise I don’t think they would bother speaking every day. I have a very simple solution though. Your sister can always keep her phone turned on just in case you or someone else should call. That’s all.

[RedTop]

Many years as a switchboard operator gave me my fill of telephone conversations! I'm not one of those people who needs to hear a voice.

[walker]

Interesting Thread!  Most of my close friends live out of town.  When we talk (not every week), it is usually not longer than an hour.  Because we don't talk on phone that often, an hour goes by quickly.  But, I have one friend who LOVES to talk!  She can easily go two hours.  I get very antsy, especially if conversation is one-sided which it is often.  I usually "try" to get off in one hour.  Daily long conversations....no way.  If someone needs a listening ear, I am there for them.  Useless chit-chat that goes on and on...waste of time.

I still laugh when I think of my father.....he would say "state your message and get off"....haha.  As a joke once, he bought my mother a cute sign that said "Blessed are the Brief"!!   He put it right by the phone.    I should have kept that one! 

[J Town Girl]

I hate to talk on the phone now, but I remember before I married my husband he was in the military and stationed in Virginia and I was in PA.   He would come home every week-end but he would still call me one night during the week.

This was long before the days of cell phones.   He would call me from a pay phone and have to have a large amount of change.  I remember talking to him and suddenly the operator would come on and tell him he had to deposit more money if he wanted to keep on talking.    We would talk until he ran out of change and then have to end the call.  

I remember one time we kept on talking and he forgot to deposit additional money.  We hung up and the operator called back to my parent's phone number and asked if she could put the additional charges that he owned, which I believe were only about $1.50 onto my parents phone bill.   The phone company wanted to be sure they got their money.  

How different everything was back then as opposed to today.  All calls out of your area were long distance with toll charges.  We never did it, but I remember hearing stories about people who had visited family members and then returned home.  They wanted to let their families know they had made it home safely so they would call the phone company and ask to make a person to person call to that family member.   It had been pre-arranged beforehand that they would ask for a particular person and the family member would say that they weren't home and that was the signal that all was well.  That way they didn't have to pay the toll charges.

In my mind that was unethical and my family would have never done that.  Things became so much better when long distance charges were eliminated.  I bet anyone under the age of 50 doesn't even remember when you had to pay additional fees to talk to family or friends in areas other than your own.  

[minkbunny]

I think it is nice that the guys get along so well and enjoy talking to each other. Not hurting anybody at all. Note: Ask your sister to turn on her cell phone as you are upset when you cannot get through to her.

[Regal Bee]

I keep my calls as brief as possible. Just NOT a phone person.

[Jordan2]

When I was a teenager I had my own landline phone in my bedroom. I would see my friends in school, get off the bus, walk home, and then call my friends and speak for at least an hour. My mother would say "you just saw your friends at school, what more do you possibly have to say"?!

[ECBG]

I don't mind being on the phone.  Since we have cell phones, if something is pressing, I can still get it done.

If I talk to close girl friends I don't often get to see, it may be an hour for both of us to share everything.  We won't talk again for several weeks or would have had lunch before a month has past (pre virus).