Friday 5 for February 26: A clubhouse ain’t nothin’ but a sandwich

The Friday 5 for February 26 dealing with telephones. I am not a big fan of telephones yet I have about 6 of them, of which only two are activated. Got 2 landline phones (non-active), a Samsung Galaxy J7 smartphone from 2016 that still kind of works and is connected to TMobile, Alcatel Flip 3 phone through Tracfone (now my primary phone) and two other older, 3G Alcatel smartphones that work but are not connected to any service. They make good radios, streaming music and wifi enabled devices, All of my cell phones have batteries you can easily replace and all have the good old analog headphone jack. That all said, there is not an iPhone in plain sight of me. Too expensive and you cannot easily replace the battery,

Now onward with the Friday 5 from M.K.D.

1. What is the longest you ever spent on the phone on one call?

I don't like to spend time talking on the phone. I especially hate using the telephone when I have to call one of those places that put you in menu and voicemail hell... and then if and when you get to a real person, you are connected to a call center in India, the Philippines or some other country where English is not very good and they know nothing about Hawaii. I am calling you out Hawaiian Airlines for having a stupid call center in the Philippines (though I haven't used it in years... maybe they moved it back to the U.S.A.)...... The good thing is that due to COVID-19 I am not flying to anywhere.

Getting back to the core question... I hate being placed on hold for 20 to 30 minutes and some places for more than an hour. Arrrrrgh!!! And the dreadful hold music... AAAAARRRRRGGGGGH!!!!  Being on the phone for a long time, on hold, listening to dreadful music truly sucks!

2. When you were a teen, how important was the phone in your daily life?

The most important thing to have access to a phone for was to either call someone up to pick me up, or try to be caller #3 or whatever to the local radio station so that you could win the great prize. It was fun back in the old landline only, analog phone days where you could figure out how to be the right caller to the radio station to snag the prize.... usually some record that I wanted for free of course.

3. How much do you use the actual telephone function of your phone today?

Not too often. I used to use it more when 1. my parents were still alive and 2. Lisa was not living with me. I still call my sister, so I guess that counts for quality phone time... and a few of my friends far and between. I think like most people, even in my advancing age, we use SMS texts, email and other less personal, online methods of communicating remotely.

4. How well do you handle phone calls at work?

"Good (morning, afternoon) this is Mel from XXXXX's office. How may we help you?" or something to that effect. And then we listen to what the caller wants and see if we can actually help with whatever question they have or at least take a message and forward to call to someone else who can help. Just have to be pleasant even if the caller is irksome... we get a few of those.

5. What are some good telephone-themed songs?

OK let's try a 5 +5 list for this one.

1. Don't Call Us, We'll Call You - Sugarloaf (1975)

2. Call Me Back Again - Paul McCartney & Wings (1975)

3. 867-5309 Jenny - Tommy Tutone (1983)

4. Hanging on the Telephone - Blondie (1978)

5. Payphone - Maroon 5 (2012)

6. Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels) - Jim Croce (1973)

7. Telephone Man - Meri Wilson (1977)

8. Echo Valley 2-6809 - The Partridge Family (1971)

9. Star 69 - R.E.M. (1993)

10. Syliva's Mother - Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show (1972)

Top 5 + 5 Telephone Songs (10 tracks)