Momma said it. It was reinforced by Grandma Haas and drilled to the depths of my tiny brain by Great Grandma Hatfield. When I lived with the grandmas my Freshman year of High School, I spent every night sitting with them around the old oak table. It was there I learned to crochet and read the Bible. The telephone hung from the wall by the front door. It was a big brown box with a receiver that you held to your ear and a tube that you spoke into which was transmitted to the wire (I assume) which went to someone else's phone. To call someone you picked up the receiver and placed it to your ear and turned the crank to get the operator.
Very little time was spent on the phone. It was a tool. Usually when the phone rang it was for emergency contact for one reason or the other. Good reasons, not just passing the time of day. Or to enquire as to one of the grandma's health. I was 15 and healthy so no one needed to check on me.
Another thing about the telephones back then was that most people were on a "party line". Back then a party line meant there were several phones on the same circuit and if you wanted to "listen in" all you had to do was pick up the phone very quietly and hold your hand over the mouth piece and you could be privvy to who ever was talking. We were not supposed to do it and it would get you a "lickin" if momma found out which she always did! (To clarify the word "lickin' ", it means spanking.)
But as for the eaves dropping, that is how my mother found out my older sister was pregnant by an older man in town who she was sneaking around with. The operator listened in on a conversation between my sister and the scoundrel! She then felt it her duty to report the situation to my mother and anyone else that would listen. Talk about gossip! And Mrs. Humphrey almost lost her job. Almost, because no one else wanted to do her job so she was allowed to stay at the switchboard and no doubt it was not the last conversation she was privy to either!
Now how I made the leap from sitting around crocheting and reading the Bible in the evening is beyond me, but here we are! I guess the fact that I can not sit quietly and meditate goes back to that old oak table, the family Bible and the telephone that was for emergencies only. We also used to pay for long distance, but that is all gone by the wayside. We are never out of range of our loved ones no matter where we are. I can pick up my phone and punch in a few numbers and reach Dona who is out in the chicken coop 200 miles away. Or I can call Debbie or Patty who are 400 miles away. Debbie will be feeding something to some body or be lining the grandkids out for the day. Patty will be on her way to some where with the phone in the car. Neither call costs anything. Connections are clear.
As for my idle hands, they are usually up here on this computer listing on ebay or etsy, or writing something to clear my mind of some obstacle that life has put in my path. But at 3:00 in the afternoon I turn on Jeopardy! and my little eyelids droop and it is nap time. And to clarify you need to know this: nap time and bedtime are two different things. Nap time I close my eyes and doze off and usually wake up to the closing theme music of Jeopardy. I do not dream during the show, but my mind takes in the information.
Bedtime usually occurs about 8:00 or so. I put on my jammies, turn out the lights, crawl into bed, pet the cat and slowly drift off to dreamland. Usually my dreams are pretty mundane, but sometimes I fight the demons of the day all night long. Those are the mornings, when I wake up at 3:00 am and get up come in here and write. I compose beautiful poems and write brilliantly as long as I do not leave the bed or turn on the light, but morning always comes.....
maybe.
