THE OLD-FANGLED TELEPHONE

Ever since the time when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, there have been telemarketers to bother and harass us.  And no time has it been more troublesome than these past eight months during the pandemic. Every day and sometimes multiple times  day I am offered a free $400 medical alert system so someone can pick me up from the floor, the shower or the park when I fall.  I can also lower my credit card interest rate, put a set of solar panels on my roof, get my Google listing upgraded and engage a new third party payer for my electrical needs.  Who wouldn’t be thrilled by this plethora of opportunities”

Frankly, me.  As Clark Gable's Rhett Butler said to Scarlett, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a fig.” Why don’t I just sign up for the Do Not Call Registry you might ask.  Well, I did and my listing doesn’t rescue me one iota.  I still hear the voices of Sue and Amy and even Chinese and Phiiipinos.  Maybe I should try learning how to say no thanks in a variety of languages.  And to make it more frustrating, they keep calling from new and unidentified places, even hospitals and sometimes from your own phone number.  No one said these telemarketers aren't tricky
and sly.  I try to tell them I am not interested, that my condo won’t allow solar panels, that I pay my credit cards fully every month, that my car is still under warranty and besides who is actually driving.

They don’t care. What is even most disturbing of all is I now realize that if it weren’t for these annoying roto phone calls, I might not get any phone calls at all.