Landlines were a whole ‘nother thing, my friend. Sure, you’re nice with texts and that’s it’s own lane but just saying landlines were sick. You’d just be sitting in your home, and nobody was home and you’d just feel drawn to the phone. It was magnetic. The phone represented possibility, adventure even. The phone was the information. It was the superhighway. It was our internet and our social media in a pre-digital world. The phone could sate your curiosity or at least entertain you if not. So you’d get comfortable, drag a somewhat cushioned chair over to the corner of the room that the landline was drilled into. You’d make sure the cubed wire-end was plugged into the back of the phone and check for a “dialtone”.It was a beep or a hum that went for a few seconds until it turned to the busy sound. At which point, you’d click down on the phone’s buttons and go for a new dialtone again. So then you’d finally start making calls. You’d know your friend’s parents and siblings’ schedules and tones. Oh, her dad is not having it today. Ooh, his brother is a prick. The convo was the same shit you probably did. Blow into the phone. Hardy har har. What you doing? Now you’re making the rounds. What is happening in this town tonight? A group of people in different corners and rincons, all in their respective corners of their corners holding their phones together with their fingers, giving you their attention, choosing you for that time, connecting, to catch a buzz from the discovery of getting to know someone cool and to maybe feel cool too.
The best song written about a landline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKElk9zTB04
The incredible invention that is the goddamn landline: https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/telephone.htm
Free Association 
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