The Telephone and Connection

 My wife has a cell phone that does more than I can imagine.  It can check her emails, text, check facebook, go to Google, has a clock, GPS and many other things of which I don't know.  She says that it is important to keep her 'connected.'  I do believe that it helps her keep connected.  However, I was really connected when I was a child and stayed at my grandparents farm.  Their phone was connected to a party line and an operator.  Whenever you picked up their phone, you had to listen for a minute to make certain that none of the others on the line were using the phone.  If they were, you waited until they were finished with their call.  Connection, however, really happened with the operator.  Whenever I picked up my grandparents phone and no one else was on the line, the operator would come on the line.  She recognized my voice and knew who I was.  She would say, "Hi, Richard.  I hope you are having a good time with your grandparents."  She would then ask, "Who do you want to talk with?"  I'd answer, "Daddy" or whoever I wanted to talk with.  She would connect me to Kib Warren's, where Daddy worked, and ask them if Russell was there.  When he came to the telephone, she would say, "Russell, Richard is on the line."  If, for example, Daddy had left Kib Warren's and gone to Hamburger King for lunch, they would tell the operator and she would contact Hamburger King for me.  If he had left there, she might ask if I wanted to talk with my mother.  She also knew how to connect me to my mother.  That was a telephone system that really connected me to my childhood world.