I heard it a while ago, something that I hadn't heard for long time, in fact I couldn't tell you the last time I heard it. Perhaps it was on an old movie or TV show, a rerun of the original Twilight Zone, but honestly I couldn't remember the last time I heard it in real life. The sound has been replaced by a plethora of Tweetles, Twitters (not the social media), beeps and various opening riffs of famous songs. I'm talking about ring tones. Like any other person who at least pretends to be up to date with technology, I have a Smartphone strapped to my hip all the time. I generally find a ring tone that I don't find distasteful and after a few months I get so tired of it that I'm forced to search for a new one. But one day I heard it...coming from a cell phone no less. It was the sound of an old Ma Bell telephone. Two bells with a clapper in between that for almost a century exclaimed that someone was calling and wishing to talk with you. Although the old Ma Bell ring is certainly not soothing, for some strange reason it's not repulsive (to me) either. A week ago my phone went through an update and for some reason that I cannot explain, I decided to look through the list of ringtones that hadn't changed since I got it. But this time was different, the list of ringtones had tripled and as I scrolled down through the pages, I found it! It simply said "Old Phone" and I chose it! Now my high tech Smartphone sounds like an old telephone when it rings. My family has weighed in on the change...my daughter thinks it's annoying, my wife just rolls her eyes and my son thinks it's funny. For me, it just makes me happy.
