Telephone Love – What Everyone Misses About the ’90’s

Guys: “Yo Is that Tamika? Damn she got fly over the summer!”
Gals: “Who’s that new dude in our science class? He’s cute.”

Remember the days when you met or saw that crush; your first crush? That person who walked in the room and instantly grabbed your attention? It could have been the way they walked, talked, dressed, or smelled. And it didn’t even matter whether or not he/she was unattractive to others but to you he was fine and she was dope. And if they were dope that was better for you (Yes I am taking terms from yesteryear). I have had them; they had me; you have had them, and it was a mixture of great and not so great feelings.

Everything from writing notes in class, talking on the phone for hours, your first date, first kiss, first sexual experience (maybe) and just the overall jubilation that came over you every time you saw, thought of, or spoke to her/him. Interestingly enough, as adults we still go through the same thing except now we’re older and technology is more adept. Remember when…

YOU ‘MADE LOVE’ ON THE PHONE

Simply put, you talked on the phone as if you were really making love (not actual phone sex though). After you exchanged numbers, you had your first conversation. Soon thereafter, many more calls came about and you’re on the phone for hours. You were caught up in the rapture of the conversation. For the fellas, your voice changed up to sound more smooth. If you were soft-spoken you added more bass. If you weren’t, you’d suddenly become Mr. G-suave adding as much smoothness and softness to your voice as possible. If you were a woman you probably did the female equivalent.

ANTICIPATED PHONE CALLS

You were nervous, hoping not to come off as cheesy or having little or nothing to say. “I’ll call them in an hour” you tell yourself and that hour felt like 10 minutes. After the time passed, “Okay I’ll call them in a half hour more.”  THAT seems like five minutes. You’re wondering why time is flying by and it’s even more unnerving. Sitting there waiting and hoping s/he’d call you was nerve-wracking to say the least.

Ladies, remember exchanging numbers with a guy and he told you that he’d call you that evening? Fellas how about talking to her for 5 minutes and then she’d have to go do something for her mother. And you felt like someone who had a sample of some bomb food now yearning for a plate. You sit by the phone hoping no one uses it, literally holding the phone hostage. If you went to eat you made it quick. If you went to take a shower that was also brief. “Hey did anyone call for me while I was….?”,  was the customary phrase you’d use.

How about when you left the house and as soon as you came home, the FIRST thing you did was check that caller ID. See, that my friends was for the old school ones that didn’t have cell phones in middle or high school. That land line was your pipe line to outer communication.

FELL ASLEEP ON THE PHONE

You’re talking and talking having the case of verbal diarrhea. For the sake of a discussion, say your conversation started at 10 pm; you look up it’s midnight. “Damn two hours?!”, you’d think to yourself. The two of you are like prized fighters exchanging blows. In this case it was jokes, one-liners, sweet nothings, normal conversation, and even sometimes a brief moment of silence.

You check the clock and suddenly you’re into the wee hours of the morning, knowing you have to be at school or work the next day (if it was summer or weekend) but you didn’t care. Your eyes start getting heavy but you don’t want to get off the phone. Without warning, you drift in and out of sleep while catching only a word or two at a time. “You sleep?“….”Oh naw, I was thinking about what you said, yo that’s crazy!” Well that was my cover up, feel free to use it at no charge.

So anyway, after a brief moment of being awake, you drift off again this time you’re down for the count. And when you wake up you hear this familiar sound.

MADE 3-WAY CALLS

How about when you had that one friend who was also cool with your crush. And you’d talk during the day about setting up a conversation to see how s/he felt about you. After homework, dinner, & chores, you’re straight for the evening. Your friend calls you and then clicks over to call her/him. After intently listening to the conversation you got something similar to one of two responses: 1)“Yeah s/he’s cute, but they don’t say anything to me. 2) For real…I didn’t know s/he liked me”.  Whatever negative comes out of their mouth it didn’t matter because you were deflated.

What’s worse was if one of your folks (usually your mother –only God knows why) picks up the phone to remind you about whatever couldn’t wait for five freaking minutes. Now some of us were really good at hanging up the phone or pressing one of the keys then hanging up. If you weren’t, well sucked to be you.

YOU RAN GAME ON YOUR PARENTS TO SNEAK ON THE PHONE 

1) “I need help with my homework so I’m going to call my friend”. <—this worked wonders especially if your folks knew you weren’t doing well in school.

2) Dialing Movie Phone (333-FILM) so when your friend called, the call wouldn’t disturb your folks; you’d simply click over.

3) Sneaking late at night to use the phone.

4) **One of the risky ones was sneaking in their room and UN-PLUGGING the phone.

**Back story on this one: I did this to my mother who was on call for OT. She also had a pager but  for some reason they chose to call on this night. And uh…yeah… let’s just leave it at that.

PASSED NOTES IN CLASS

Writing notes back and forth to each other in class was cool, but there was always the risk of being caught and worse having that penis-brain of a teacher reading it to the class. It was better when you wrote them independently and passed them to each other in the hall between classes.

Remember sitting in class wondering if she’d write back? You could care less about what inertia was, what is an electoral college, or what a algebraic expression was. All you were fixated on was if she wrote back, and your adrenaline was flowing all through class. When the bell rang you were itching to leave. And then came overall elation when she passed you her response folded up neatly. However there were those Debbie-Downer moments when she couldn’t write back or worse DIDN’T READ IT YET.

Anyway readers just taking a trip down memory lane. Share some, let us know if any of these pertained to you, or if you had any different ones.

peace

Updated on 01/15/19, Post originally entitled, “Puppy “Telephone’ Love: Remember Those Days When You Used To…?”