Telephone books

need to be updated!

There was a suggestion yesterday that those in one of the Covid19 "hot spots" should inform everyone in their phone books if they have been to a venue which requires them to instantly quarantine and get tested. 

It's an interesting thought but not one which is particularly useful or practical. It assumes the people you are likely to call are people who live in nearby locations.

We still have one of those old fashioned phone books supplied by the telecommunications industry. You know the sort of thing I mean I am sure. It is printed on very thin newsprint in the smallest possible print. Unless you get a magnifying glass out it is impossible to read. 

I tried to use it the other day but was not surprised to discover that the person I was trying to contact was not to be found in it.  The telephone directory no longer keeps up to date. Mobile numbers are not included in it. 

Once it used to be possible to look up a phone number and even an address that way. You could have a vague idea of where someone lived and then find the initials you thought were likely to be theirs and call the number. That's not possible any more.More and more people are using mobile phones. 

We also have a "personal" telephone directory. It was last updated by the Senior Cat during cold, wintry days when he could not be in the shed or in the garden. We both knew it needed to be done. I said I would type up an x-cell sheet but he said he wanted to do it himself. 

It was a miserable business in a way. He kept saying to me, "We don't need that one any more" and "Who is....?" and "That's another one no longer with us" or "Do you remember...?"

The task was eventually finished but I looked at it yesterday and realised that it is out of date yet again. If I really needed to contact everyone in the personal book I would need access to a mobile phone directory for some and a hot line to heaven for others. 

My current address book is the same. It is time I updated that. There are untidy scribbles where I have crossed out an old address and replaced it with a new one. There are people who have moved away and we have lost contact with each other. And there are people who have died and their numbers are no longer needed ever again.

I am not sure I like this. I wonder what would happen if I called the old numbers. Who would answer? What would they say to me?