Providing Dial Tone

Welcome to my website showcasing my memoir, Providing Dial Tone. In the photo section, you will find pictures that coincide with the book, adding color to the story. Gathering these photos was a combination of luck, a lot of digging, and, dare I say, a bit of magic. With all the moves over the years, I'm surprised I found this many.

After I got the idea for the book, it took a while to figure out how to approach it. So I dove right in, using my old resume(s) (still stored in my file cabinet), the photos (many of which were on slides), and other sources, such as my high school yearbooks, as well as the internet. Then, I was able to establish a timeline. It's amazing that once you have a foundation to work from, the memories start coming back, in some cases, even in the smallest of details.

Now that the book is finished, I can reminisce about how others in my generation lived our lives. I suppose a person around my age could relate to a lot of the situations in the book. But what about the prior generations? Whether you lived in the city or rural areas, like farmers and ranchers, the phone was your lifeline. If you were out and about, a pay phone.

And now look at us―totally dependent on our cell phones. Watch old TV shows or movies from that time, and it will come back to you — or enlighten you. I'm thinking of shows like Miami Vice, Cheers, Seinfeld, Three's Company, and Dallas, among others.

If we needed to research a topic or do homework, it was off to the library. Some of us had a set of encyclopedias at home (remember encyclopedia salesmen?). If you needed to spell a word, use the dictionary (Funk and Wagnalls, no doubt). Looking for a job or apartment, use the want ads. Taking a trip, get out the maps in the glove box.

You can see where this is going — it's how people lived and communicated daily. Staying with that theme, I included a section called Got Dial Tone? where everyone can share their memories from that time. Even if you're a younger person, it's fun to think of different scenarios without the use of cell phones or computers.

So, turn off your cell phone and think about how life was back in the day. You will find that we all got along just fine without them.